Defenders of Neopia 2:Brotherhood
by LaDude111
Summary: It's been a year since Kass' defeat at the hands of Jeffory and his friends. Jeffory is haunted by the events of the previous year, and something terrible within him is trying to take him over. With a new Commander bent on making his life miserable, and a mysterious soldier who's intentions are anything but pure, Jeffory's problems are only beginning.
1. Chapter 1

**(A/N From the dark reaches of the realm of AWESOME-NESS... I. Have. Returned! I, LaDude, have returned to you with the sequel of my last story! Now, please leave a review and enjoy!)**

**Story: Defenders of Neopia 2: Brotherhood**

**Rating: T for Language, blood, and fighting.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Neopets. **

**Summary: A year after Kass' defeat, Jeffory is still haunted by his best friend's death and the monstrous creature within him. Among these problems, Jeffory is dealing with more common teenage boy problems; School, and girls. And things get even weirder after that. **

**Defenders of Neopia 2: Brotherhood. Chapter 1: Changes.**

Jeffory had no idea how it had happened, but the entire world of Neopia now knew about Kass' defeat. Stories of how it had all happened spread like wild-fire, each tale becoming more and more far-fetched. One of which involved the vengeful spirit of Dr. Sloth blowing up the Station and taking Kass, his killer, with it. Nobody, however, except for a very select few knew what had really happened. Nobody knew who had really saved them all.

The heroes who freed Neopia from Kass' iron grip, Jeffory Knights, Jack Mason and Hunter Tagari, names would not go down in history. In fact, the teens were as unknown as they had been before their journey had even begun, and they wouldn't have it any other way.

They didn't really care to be renowned world-wide (maybe Jack did) and upon returning to their Academy, they sank back into their regular lives as Defenders-in-training. Well, as regular as a Defender-in-training's life could be.

The most the student population knew about the trio was that they had gone on an important mission and returned. Immediately after the Station blew up.

And nobody really cared.

* * *

One year ago.

_Jeffory stared down at his nemesis. At last, he had avenged them... he had avenged them all. He looked at his blood-covered sword and sighed. "I will never be like you Kass. You..." he trailed off as he began walking out the door._

_As he stepped into the corridor, he glanced over his shoulder at the once-threatening man. "...can rot in Hell." And then, the door whizzed shut behind him, leaving Kass to die in complete darkness. _

Jeffory sighed, looking at his blood-stained blade. He had succeeded in avenging his parents but he felt so... dirty. True, he had killed more than one man in his life, but killing Kass had been something he had been planning to do for almost his entire existence.

Jeffory shuddered, his mind filled with images of Kass' dead body...

He was snapped out of his reverie when Jack's voice reached his ears. "Jeffory! Jeffory! You okay?" the mynci called, running down the corridor, his footsteps echoing throughout the room. He tripped over his own feet before he reached his friend.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine..." Jeffory told him quietly. Jack breathed a sigh of relief. He took one look at the sword in Jeffory's hand and he didn't even have to ask why the kyrii was so quiet. Heavy panting reached Jeffory's ears, and he looked down the hallway to see Hunter sprinting at him, looking a bit woozy.

"Are you-" Hunter, finally reaching his friends, started. He was cut off by Jeffory. "-Alrght? Yeah, I'm fine. Now, let's get out of this godforsaken place."

Jack and Hunter didn't queston their leader. They knew fairly well Jeffory's thoughts on killing people. They knew he just needed some time and he would be alright... they hoped.

Before they even started walking down the long corridor, however, a blaring alarm reached their ears.

"Oh... sh-!" Jack was cut off by a computerized voice sounding along with the alarm.

**"WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! SELF-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE ACTIVATED! EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY!" ** it monotoned over and over.

Jeffory growled. "Damn! Kass must've engaged the self-destruct sequence!" he told his friends. Hunter glared at him. "Gee! Thanks for that, Captain Obvious!" he snapped.

"Shut it, smartass," Jeffory told the Kougra, giving him a death glare for good measure. He mentaly berated himself. How could he have not anticipated this?! "Hunter! Get to the ship and get it ready! Jack, you go with him!" Jeffory ordered, pointing to the opposite end of the corridor.

"Huh? But what about you?!" asked Jack. Jeffory shook his head. "I'm going back for Sam's body. I'm not leaving him here," he told them, taking off down the hall before his friends could argue. Jack and Hunter stared at each other with concerned looks before they did as their leader commanded.

They sprinted down the corridor together, splitting in different directions when they reached a split at the end of it.

The monotonous computer voice continued blaring as Jeffory sprinted back to the Bridge.

**"WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!"** it said, making Jeffory groan loudly as he increased his speed.

**"TEN MINUTES UNTIL TOTAL DESTRUCTION!"**

"Damn you, Kass!" Jeffory hissed. He was utterly exhausted from his battle with Kass, and still he had to continue to exert himself. As he grumbled to himself, he closed in on the gaping hole that was created by the massive battle that had taken place. He leapt through it and he hit the ground running.

Jeffory skidded to a halt and scanned the room. He spotted Sam's body leaning against the wall to his right and he jogged over to it.

He bit back a sob upon seeing it. It was simply too hard to believe that he had failed to save him. It was as if a part of himself had gone with Sam when he died. After taking a moment to compose himself, he bent down and picked up his best friend, cradling him. He absently heard the computer voice warning him that he had 5 minutes left.

As Jeffory jumped through the hole once again, he cursed mentaly. He didn't have the time! He couldn't make it out of the Station in 5 minutes!

_"I'll never make it... I can't die... not now! Not after all I've been through...!" _Jeffory thought desperately.

"**WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! FOUR MINUTES UNTIL SELF-DESTRUCT!"**

He was going to need some sort of miracle if he planned on getting out of here with his skin intact.

_BOOM!_

Jeffory was almost blown off of his feet as a huge gust of wind roared through the room. Once he opened his eyes again, he couldn't believe what he saw.

It was the ASM2! The entrance hatch opened, and Jack poked his head out. "DID I HEAR SOMEONE ASK FOR A MIRACLE!?" he roared.

"No, now help him in!" Hunter called from the pilot's seat.

Jeffory rolled his eyes readjusting Sam in his arms and running into the ship. Even when they were all minutes away from dying, they made time to bicker. **"SELF-DESTRUCT IN FIVE MINUTES!"**

When he got inside, Jeffory barely had enough time to place Sam in the passenger's seat, much less sit himself down before the ASM2 took off at breakneck speeds, tearing through the long corridor.

Hunter sat silently at the wheel, focusing only on what was ahead. Jeffory almost jumped out of his skin when he heard the Warning voice speak again, saying that there was one minute left until total annihilation.

"Um, Hunter?" asked Jack nervously. The kougra in question did not respond, so Jack tried again. "Hunt?!" this time, he sounded a little more frantic. When Hunter ignored him again, Jack snapped. "WE ARE GONNA DIE IF WE DON'T SPEED UP!" he shouted, snapping Hunter out of his trance-like state.

From his seat, Jeffory couldn't help but feel useless, once again. He wished there were something-anything-he could do to help.

From the pilot's seat, Hunter responded to Jack, at long last. "I'm trying!" he snapped. "This thing can only go so fast!" Suddenly, Jeffory got an idea. "Shouldn't there be some emergency speed-up thingy?" he asked. From where Jack was sitting, he climbed out of his chair-stumbling slightly-and began to feel around the ship.

"What are you doing?!" asked Jeffory, bemused. "Looking for a big, red shiny button!" the mynci responded, in a "Duh!" tone.

**"SELF DESTRUCTING!"** the computerized voice blared.

"SHIT!" Jeffory cursed. "Hunter!" he called. "I know, I know!" Hunter bellowed, irritated. Jeffory, unbuckling himself, began looking around the ship, similar to Jack.

"Hey what's this?!" questioned Jack, as he pushed the first red button he saw.

"Jack, wai-!" Jeffory was cut off, as he fell to the ground as the ASM2 picked up speed at an incredible rate.

The trio could feel the heat of the exploding Space Station from inside the ASM2. Jeffory, wasn't really affected by it, but the other two were sweating bullets.

A sea of flames was pursuing the ship as they sped towards the Station's hangar.

From the pilot seat, Hunter was feeling faint but he tried to shake it off. He had to keep it together, they were so close...!

There it was! But, to the trio's dismay, the hangar door was... closing! "Oh no... HUNTER, PUNCH IT!" Jeffory shouted. He could feel the sea of flames catching up to them.

Hunter rammed the yoke forward, and they shot through the door, the ASM2 turned on its side to squeeze through the narrow gap.

BOOM!

The Station blew up behind them, exploding with a deafening boom. The force of the explosion propelled the Air Slasher into a spiral, sending them careening towards earth.

Fortunately, Hunter straightened their ship, and slowed down.

The three sat in silence, completely stunned.

Not a word was spoken throughout the flight. Not until they returned to the planet. And even then, words were used sparingly.

* * *

One year later.

Peace had at last returned to Neopia. Civilians could actually walk out of their houses and enjoy life without fearing Kass' wrath. Said civilians were bustling about the large city of Brightvale. The snow came falling down as they ran from store to store, arms full of many bags, big and small.

Christmas was just around the corner and everyone was in an uproar. Despite the cheerful atmosphere of the season, the highways were not very cheerful at all.

"GET THE HELL OUT OF THE ROAD, YOU MORON!" was Brightvale's 'joyful' tune.

From inside the large Defenders Academy, Jeffory shifted into a more comfortable posistion on his bed. It was the weekend and Jeffory didn't know what to do with himself. He had already done his shopping for his friends, Jack, Hunter and Kendra. Yes, that's right, Kendra! The young woman had woken up from her coma shortly after Jeffory and co. returned to the Academy.

There hadn't been any explanation to her recovery, other than that it just... Happened. The trio had asked her caretakers about it, and all they were able to tell them was that she suddenly woken up in the middle of the night, asking where her friends had gone. Jeffory was very touched when he heard this. The girl had been in a coma, and when she finally wakes, the first thing on her mind is her companions.

Although, she had been woozy, she was more than a little angry at her friends for embarking on such a dangerous task, and without her, as well. However, her anger had subsided long enough for her to hug each of them tightly (Jack looked like he was about to faint) before she returned to her lecture.

Jeffory chuckled at the memory. He would never forget Jack's face when he heard that Kendra was awake. The mynci let out a whoop of glee and broke into a run, knocking over the doctor in his hurry. He had run as fast as his feet could take him, knocking over plenty more people as he made a beeline for the infirmary.

The only major damage Kendra had suffered from her coma was the fact that her horn had been broken in half. She could no longer use it to cast her spells, and had to learn to fire bursts of energy from her fins. She tired more quickly, and Jack made his concern very clear.

To Jeffory, Hunter's-and possibly Kendra's-annoyance, Jack had still not made a move on Kendra. However, the two WERE getting friendlier with each other. Every once in awhile, they flirted back and forth, leaving Jeffory and Hunter feeling amused but awkward. They exchanged more frequent hugs, and they began standing so close their shoulders would brush against each other.

Jack and Kendra's relationship wasn't the only thing to change; Hunter had developed a crush on the girl who worked at the library, new exchange students had joined the already lively Academy and Jack (with Kendra's help) had made a few modifications to his pistol. It now fired bullets that electrocuted their targets. They were much more useful than the shots of electricity he fired before the change. Kendra had figured out a way to put her magic into _some_ objects and something small like bullets was an easy task. Well, easy once she got the hang of it.

The first couple bullets had blown up.

He grinned at the memory of Jack's undisguised glee. He had danced around for about ten minutes until he finally tired and lay down for a nap. Only to continue his dance when he woke up an hour later.

Jeffory's smile faltered and he sighed, for what seemed to be the hundreth time that morning. Although, pleased with his defeat of Kass, he was not happy at all with the price it took to do so.

Sam, his best friend for ten years, had given his life for Jeffory's. The memory was still fresh in his mind, and it played over and over. It was what kept him up at night. Even Jack's loud, cartoon-like snoring had fallen down on the list iof things that kept him awake. He couldn't take his mind off of Sam's death. He would toss and turn, the horrible end of Sam's life played on constant loop. And it was even worse when he _could_ sleep. His dreams consisted mainly of Sam dying in front of him and Kass laughing like the madman he was.

Jeffory would often times tell himself not to think about what had happened, but of course, he thought about it even more. After they left the Station, the trio had returned to Meridell to bury Sam's body. Jack and Hunter had been utterly exhausted, but they had stuck with Jeffory as he dug his best friend's grave. He had written a letter to Anna, containing a message from her son before he passed away.

It read:

Dear Anna:

Sam wanted me to tell you that he loves you.

And that he's sorry.

The tear-stained letter had been slipped under the door. Jeffory couldn't bear to tell Anne that her son was dead face-to-face. Besides, it was his fault that Sam died. Why would Sam's mother want to see Jeffory's face? A part of him felt guilty for not having the courage to speak to the kind woman that had raised him, Sam, and so many other children, but he just couldn't.

His friends had told him it wasn't his fault, but their encouragements fell on deaf ears. Jeffory didn't believe them, though he tried.

It was his fault, and the Voice was the only other person that agreed with him.

Jeffory sat up, with a long groan. That damned voice was still haunting him. Fortunately, Jeffory wasn't struggling with his violent fits anymore. Over the summer he had taken anger management classes, dragging Jack along with him. Hunter decided he wanted to come along, as well, claiming he wanted to study "The angry people". Jack told him that was creepy, but Hunter simply told him to go screw himself. It turns out, the kougra had more anger problems than Jeffory did! Even the Voice was startled, 'voicing' its opinion in Jeffory's head. And to his own surprise, Jeffory agreed with it.

Jeffory sat up, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. Trying, and partially failing to hold in yet another sigh, he held his head in hands.

From behind him, VIM, the boys' robotic companion that was attached to his bed sprang to life.

The monitor's "eyes" opened and it looked at Jeffory. "Master Knights, is something wrong?" asked the monitor, its robotic voice taking on a tone of concern. It was a weird thing to imagine, a concerned robot, but Jeffory had encountered weirder things.

"Nah, everything's fine, Vim. You don't have to worry," the kyrii told it as he climbed out of bed, stretching when he got to his feet.

He decided he would go see what his friends were up to, and he wandered out of his room.

* * *

Inside the student lounge, Jack, who was laying upside-down on a large sofa, snickered.

"Hehehehe..."

To his left, Hunter, who was sitting the way a normal person would, looked up from his algebra textbook and glared at the mynci.

"Would it kill you to shut up, and let us superior beings read in peace?" Hunter asked Jack for what seemed like the fiftieth time.

Said mynci attempted to give him a glare from his awkward position, but just ended up going cross-eyed. Kendra, who was sitting in a loveseat across from the coach, rolled her eyes.

"You two _still_ haven't grown up." Kendra sighed, well aware that she was stating the obvious. Jack tried to put himself right-side up but fell off instead. "Maybe I don't wanna grow up!" he told the flotsam, his voice muffled from the carpet in his face.

Hunter rolled his eyes. "Pffft, whatever, Peter Pan," Hunter said, grinning, but it turned into a frown when Jack flipped him off. Hunter, in an eerily calm way, placed his book to his side. He popped the muscles in his neck and sighed. And then he dove onto the still-fallen mynci.

The two were now in an all out fist-fight, rolling around the lounge and shouting childish insults at eachother.

"YOU HIT LIKE A GIRL!" was among such insults.

Kendra, used to their erratic scuffles, paid them absolutely no mind.

It was at that moment that Jeffory walked into the room, side-stepping Jack and Hunter and sitting down next to Kendra. "Those two at it again?" he asked her, gesturing towards the mini dust cloud that was slowly forming.

Kendra laughed and nodded. "The same old stuff, of course," she told him, getting a chuckle from Jeffory. "So what are you guys up to in here?" asked Jeffory, eyeing Kendra's textbook.

"Well, _I'M_ studying for the test on tuesday. These two aren't doing anything very worthwhile," she informed him, pointing at Jack and Hunter.

Jeffory groaned. He hadn't studied AT ALL! He had been busy training with his sword!

Kendra gave her friend a knowing look. "_You_ haven't studied either, have you?" she asked, slyly. Jeffory just gave her a sheepish grin. She rolled her eyes. At that moment, Larry Greene, a nerdy moehog, came running in. Tripping over his own hooves. He stumbled his way to Jeffory, the usual creepy smile plastered on his pimply face.

"I have an important message from the Commander!" he said in his nasaly voice. Jeffory resisted the urge to let out a groan.

The new Commander was a shadow chia with a _huge_ ego. His name was Vincent Larx. He had been hired as a replacement for the late Adam Grey, but Larx had quickly made the students wish for a different replacement. He was gruff, egotistical, bitter and just plain mean. He honestly didn't care for the students like Grey had and he didn't give regards to their safety, blindly giving orders to the now-resentful students and making himself even more disliked.

And it seemed like he enjoyed it.

It had been brought to everyone's attention _many_ times that Larx had been a high-ranking officer in several wars before he had retired, and dedicated his life to making those of the students' hell. The only people that seemed interested in Larx's many, many stories (that Jeffory thought were greatly exaggerated) were those who wanted to be on his good side. Tom, a shadow techo that Jeffory had met the prior year, was one of them. Larx was quite fond of Tom, who constantly showered him with painfully fake, very rehearsed compliments. Scott and Josh, who were the other two members of Tom's team, almost always looked exasperated when they were around Tom, who's ego had gotten very large since last year.

Larx didn't care how fake it all was, though. He just liked to be admired for being a jerk. Jeffory wasn't quite sure how messed up you had to be to desire such a thing, but he had deduced that Larx was indeed that messed up.

While Jeffory had been cursing the new "Commander" in his head, Larry was drooling over Kendra, who was getting very creeped out.

"Oh, uh, what's the message?" asked Jeffory, getting the moehog's attention off of Kendra. The girl shot him a grateful look, mouthing, "Thank you!" when Larry turned his back on her.

"Commander Larx wants you in his office!" said Larry, looking proud that he had been chosen to deliver such an "important" message. "He said not to keep him waiting!" Larry concluded, puffing out his chest.

Jeffory growled. "Yeah, great... Thanks, Larry," Jeffory sighed, standing up and walking out of the student lounge. As he left, Larry was accidentily pulled into Jack and Hunter's dust cloud, leaving Kendra to pry them all apart.

**(A/N Alright, there's the first chapter. I'm pleased with how it turned out. Pretty simple, to the point. Okay, I will upload the second chapter next friday! Please leave a review!**

**LaDude out.)**


	2. Chapter 2

**(A/N All right, so last time, I said the next chapter would be uploaded on Friday. Well, as it turns out, I ended up being pretty busy last week and simply didn't have the time. As such, I'm uploading this chapter now to make up for it. I'll be back on schedule next chapter.)**

**Disclaimer: So, like... Neopets isn't mine. In case you haven't noticed. **

**Defenders of Neopia 2: Brotherhood Chapter 2: Departure.**

Jeffory hadn't been in an extremely good mood today. And it had just gotten worse. He had no desire to go see the Commander. In fact, he'd rather sit through another loud, and generally weird class of Mr. Demente's. And _that's_ saying something. The thought of visiting Larx filled him with frustration, and that made him grumble to himself. Having students give him weird looks as he did so did nothing to improve his now-foul mood.

He thought back to his first encounter with Larx and he shook his head, not enjoying the memory in the slightest. It had only been a couple of months after the events at the Space Station, and Sam's death had been very fresh on his mind. Well, fresher than it was now, that is. He hadn't seen Jack and Hunter at all that day. It had been a Saturday, and when he had woken up, his two friends were nowhere to be seen. When he located them on the third floor hallway, they were wielding two, large paintball guns.

They were covered from head-to-toe in paint and Jack offered a much smaller gun to Jeffory, wearing a mischevious grin. Clearly, he didn't care that they were once again breaking school rules. Jeffory, being the level-headed youth that he was, did the only thing someone like him would do in this situation. He took the gun.

Needless to say, they had gotten into trouble. Hunter, while in pursuit of Jack, had shot Coach Qwii right in the face. Also needless to say, he was ticked. Wiping the red paint off his face, he had sent Jeffory (who he, for some reason, believed was behind the whole thing) to Commander Larx's office. Jack and Hunter did what any best friends would do. They sent him on his way with sheepish grins.

When he had arrived at the Commander's office for the first time, he had overrheard Larx talking to... somebody over the phone. He had cursed Grey's name _very_ loudly. And, to make Jeffory's already-growing dislike for him even worse, he threatened to have him and his team expelled for their "blatant disregard for the rules".

Jeffory shook his head. Sure, they _had_ broken the rules, but he felt Larx had been simply too dramatic about the whole deal. And that made him dislike the Commander even more.

He sighed as he stood in front of Larx's office.

He reached out and knocked on the door, composing his his growing temper. After a few, long moments, Larx's self-important voice called out: "Enter." Jeffory rolled his eyes and opened the door. He attempted to screw the sour look on his face into one of pleasentry

Because constipation is sure to make people like you.

"Knights," Larx greeted flatly. Jeffory noticed, with irritation, he didn't even take his eyes off of the large trophy sitting on his desk.

"Larx," Jeffory responded, the tone of his voice lacking the sort of respect the oh-so grand Commander demanded. Jeffory hoped Larx was so consumed in his trophy that he wouldn't notice Jeffory's admittedly bad attitude. He wasn't. Larx's absent expression turned to one of extreme dislike as he slowly left his chair, stalking over to the helpless kyrii. "When you adress me, you will _only_ adress me as 'Sir' or 'Commander', am I clear?" he hissed in Jeffory's face.

Jeffory wiped the Commander's glorious saliva off of his face and nodded, the constipated look turning to one of contempt. "Yes, _Sir,"_ Jeffory growled, making sure to stress the title. Satisfied, Larx nodded stiffly and returned to his chair.

Jeffory remained at his position against the door, feeling his temper getting the best of him. He could've sworn he heard the Voice inside of him chuckle in pleasure.

After what felt like an eternity, Larx said: "Lately, I have been recieving reports of a large monster terrorizing the Fairy Plains. The monster's species is unknown..." Larx droned on, and Jeffory felt as if he were listening to a recording. "...Normally, we'd leave it alone, but as the Plains are generally close to the city, it is our job to eliminate it before it becomes... Bold," Larx explained, not even looking in Jeffory's direction.

"I want you to take your team and dispose of the creature. Shouldn't be too much of a problem, hmm?" Now, he was looking at Jeffory, wearing a smug expression. "The late Commander seemed... Impressed with the results of your work last year." Jeffory said nothing, and let Larx continue. "Dismissed," he said, pointing a pudgy hand at the door behind Jeffory.

Jeffory, turned to leave, but Larx called out to him. "Be prepared. Don't go dying on me, hmm?" Jeffory's grip on the doorknob tightened considerably.

"After all, it would make me look bad if I let something happen to my employees," Larx said with a cruel smile.

Jeffory said nothing and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him. It took all of his willpower to not slam it.

The kyrii stood outside the office, panting heavily. He lurched forward, feeling as he were about to vomit. He brought a shaky hand to his forehead. It throbbed painfully. He realized, with a touch of fear, that the creature inside of him was responding to his anger. It was trying to take over like it had tried many times before.

His vision was beginning to fail him, and he was forced to lean on the wall as his brain felt as if it were about to explode. Finally, after a few agonizing moments, the pain subsided, as did his frustration. Taking several deep breaths, he steadied himself. _"This has to stop..."_ he thought to himself.

* * *

Jeffory returned to the student lounge to find Jack and Hunter still rolling around. Kendra was back on the couch, trying her best to ignore the duo's antics. Jeffory walked over to her. "Hey, what happened to Larry?" he asked, admittedly curious. Kendra set her textbook aside and rolled her eyes. "He managed to escape those two and ran off, crying," she explained. Jeffory couldn't help but be amused at the mental image.

"Get any work done?" Jeffory questioned, taking a seat next to her. She shook her head, sending a glare at the two squabbling teens. They had just knocked a table over, but it didn't slow them down one bit. "Of course not. I can't even hear myself think over-" she was cut off by Hunter bellowing at Jack, "YOUR MOM!"

"-_that,"_ Kendra continued, bringing a fin to her temple. "They'll never pass this school year if they keep this up..." she grumbled.

"Larx is sending us on a new mission," he started, picking up Hunter's forgotten book from its spot on the couch and chucking it into the dust cloud. A cry of pain followed, and Jeffory was sure they could hear him now, as the dust cloud was slowly dispersing. "We're going to the Fairy Plains. We're hunting a monster that's gotten too close to the city,"

"Why do we always get the icky jobs?" Jack asked, rubbing his arm and glowering at Hunter, who was also nursing a similar wound. "Because the Commander adores us!" Hunter declared, his voice dripping with sarcasm. Jeffory grinned in response as they all gathered their things and returned to their dorms to change.

* * *

After Jeffory, Jack, and Hunter changed into more suitable clothing for the bitter cold outside, they made a beeline for Kendra's dorm. Unfortunately, her roommate, Jamie, told them she had already gone on ahead to the Hangar. Thanking her, they went on their way.

As they turned around the corner, they saw Kendra floating right next to the elevator looking bored. "There you are!" she laughed when they came walking over to her. "You three took longer than _me_ to get ready!" she teased, a wry smile playing on her lips. Jack grinned. "Hey, gotta look good for my favorite girl," he said boldly, pulling on his red jacket's collar.

Jeffory's eyes widened at Jack's blatant flirting. Hunter, however didn't seem all that surprised.

Kendra blushed a little bit but responded, "And nobody appreciates that more than me."

"Alright, you two! Break it up; we gotta job to do!" Hunter said, getting their attention back to him.

"Uh, right!" Jack said, rubbing the back of his neck. Kendra acted similar to Jack, except she was playing with her hair. Jeffory walked past them, getting in the elevator. His friends followed him, Jack and Kendra still a little flustered.

When they exited into the hangar, the sound of Jake's booming voice reached their ears. Behind him, Jeffory heard Jack snicker. Jeffory looked to his left and saw Jake towering over a small, bespectacled kacheek.

"IF I TOLD YOU ONCE, I TOLD YOU A THOUSAND TIMES!" he bellowed at the kacheek, who was shaking like a leaf.

"B-but-" the worker stuttered in response, but was cut off by Jake, who was positively fuming. "DO NOT! UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES! DROP! THAT! CARGO!" he roared, pointing at a large wooden container laying on its side next to the kacheek. In response to his boss' orders, the kacheek paled considerably and fainted.

Jake let out a low sigh. "I mighta gone too far, that time..." he muttered, leaning down and picking up the kacheek, slinging him over his shoulders.

Jeffory rolled his eyes and walked over. "Hey, Jake!" he greeted, waving at him.

Jake whirled around at the sound of the kyrii's voice, and a wide smile appeared on his face. "Hey, it's my favorite students!" he boomed. In his haste to greet them, the kacheek on his shoulder fell and landed with a dull "thump".

Jake payed this no mind, scooping Jeffory up in a crushing bear hug, and treated the other boys the same. However, he was much more gentle with Kendra, much to her relief. Once greetings were exchanged, Jake placed his hands on his hips. "Now, then, what can I do for ya?" he asked with a broad grin.

"We're here to take the ASM2. We have a mission," Jeffory explained, looking around Jake's huge frame at the kacheek who lay, forgotten on the floor behind him. "Alright!" Jake bellowed, taking Jeffory's attention off of the poor worker. "She's right over here," he told them, leading them over to the Air Ship. Kendra followed immeadiately, but the guys, however, took a little bit longer, as they were readjusting their bones.

They reached the Air Slasher Mark 2 that was located at the edge of the Hangar. Jake patted Jeffory on the shoulder, making his knees buckle. "You be careful out there, y'hear?" he said. Jeffory and the others nodded.

"C'mon! It's _US, _right?" said Jack, proudly. Jake chuckled. "Of course, of course," he said. "But the monster's have been real weird lately. Just be on your guard at all times!" Taking that as an order, Jack jokingly saluted. The quintet climbed into the ASM2 and strapped themselves in.

Jake's face appeared on the monitor in front of Hunter. "You all ready?" he asked them. Hunter nodded, from his position. "Affirmative," he said. "Oh, yeah!" Jack added. Jake chuckled at his enthusiasm. He disappeared from the screen for a moment and a creaking sound could be heard.

The large, metal door in front of their ship opened with a loud "hiss". The snow from outside blew into the hangar, the wind howling. Jake appeared on the screen, once again. Hunter pulled the yoke backwards, preparing for launch. "Prepare for launch, AS crew!" Hunter ordered.

"Roger!" they all responded. Hunter nodded.

Jake began counting down as the ASM2 began to rumble. "ASM2 launch in:

3!

2!

1!"

"Air Slasher, launch!" Hunter called, slamming the yoke forward, sending their ship into the grey sky.

Jake watched them go, satisfied with the launch. He tilted his head to the side, crossing his arms. He could've sworn he had been doing something important a short while ago...

* * *

The ASM2 tore through the skies, the snow falling against the windows. Jack was loudly humming along to the tune of "It's a small world", and driving Hunter up the wall.

Jeffory ignored Jack's antics, and thought about the inevitable battle. He hoped he would be ready to face whatever monster would come at them. They had taken on several missions since their return to the Academy, but they hadn't been sent on one such as this for quite some time.

Kendra seemed to be deep in thought. She kept glancing at Jack, who was completely oblivous and it was beginning to worry Jeffory. He hoped one of them would make a move before someone else came along.

He had recently noticed Kendra taking a slight interest in the arrogant techo he had met last year, Tom. He was pretty much any teenage girl's dream: Tall, dark, handsome... Lots of the female (and some male) students were into him. For some reason, it seemed they were attracted to his overhwelming arrogance, among the other "qualities". The older student was beginning to show signs of interest in the Mage, as Jeffory frequently noticed him checking her out.

Jack hadn't noticed this yet, and didn't seem think he had anything to worry about. Unfortunately for him, the students were getting older and were taking more of an interest in the opposite sex. Sadly, Jack seemed to believe that his subtle, and sometimes blatant, flirting with Kendra was enough to keep her interested. He was wrong.

The thought of relationships brought something to mind: The "Dream Girl". The prior year, Jeffory had dreamt of what he believed to be a scene from his future. He had been traveling underground with a girl who looked about his age. Jeffory had felt an attraction to her instantly. When he had told Jack and Hunter about her, they had laughed, referring to her as "The Dream Girl", much to Jeffory's annoyance. He hadn't dreamt of her since then, but he could have sworn he encountered her in person. Or someone similar, at least.

They continued flying in silence for over an hour, and Jack decided to stop humming, and do something even more annoying. "So, Jeff!" he said, out of the blue. Jeffory jumped, his train of thought crashing. "Yeah?" he asked. Jack grinned wryly. "Who are you taking to the Christmas Eve dance?"

Jeffory choked. He hadn't even thought about it. And now that he _did_ think about it, he realized it was only five days from now. "Uhhh, well I haven't really... thought... about... it." he mumbled in response, suddenly feeling self-conscious. He was somewhat... Awkward around the opposite sex (excluding Kendra), and asking a female to a dance was simply out of the question.

Jack rolled his eyes. "In other words, you're too nervous to ask someone to go with you," he said, reading Jeffory's mind. Up in the driver's seat, Hunter snickered. "Oh, kinda like _you_ Jack?" he asked wryly.

"Pfft!" Jack exclaimed, looking quite confident in himself. "I've got someone in mind!" he declared. Jeffory noticed that Kendra, who had been somewhat quiet throughout the flight, suddenly looked in the mycni's direction. She looked almost hopeful. "Y'know Maria Johnson, right?" Jeffory nodded slowly, stealing a glance at Kendra. "She's _hot_ and I just may have a chance!" he continued, not noticing the crushed expression on Kendra's face.

Jack must've been trying to make Kendra jealous. Did he expect this to work, and for her to make the first move? It was obvious he was putting off asking Kendra to the dance, and it was most likely his nerves getting the best of him. Jeffory wondered if he was any good at playing Cupid...

Suddenly, the ship lurched, causing them all to jump and look outside their windows. Jeffory absent-mindely noticed they were over what he recognized as the Fairy Plains.

Hunter scanned the sky ahead with worried eyes. He was shaking and his breathing was frantic. Jeffory gulped. The last thing they needed was for their pilot's nerves to get the best of him.

The ship lurched as something slammed into it, causing it to spiral downwards.

"SHIT!" Hunter bellowed as they shot down. Fortunately, he managed to get them back on course, but the bottom of the ship grazed the ground, causing snow to fly all around and obscure Hunter's view. "Dammit!" he cursed, as the ship was once again slammed into.

"What's hitting us?!" Jeffory asked, trying in vain to see out the windows. "I dunno!" Jack said, mimicing Jeffory's actions. Kendra was trying to stay calm but was shaking. "D-do-do you think we found the monster?" she stuttered.

"Of course we found it _now!"_ Jeffory groaned, clutching the armrests.

Hunter managed to get the ship back into the sky. At this point, the ship's alarms were going off and a computerized voiced blared, **"WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!"** over and over again.

At last, the attacks on the ASM2 had stopped, leaving the team quite shaken. After a moment of flying aimlessly, Jack spoke up. "Uhhh... where did it go?" he asked, confused.

Hunter could now see out the window so he scanned the sky with his eyes, seeing nothing.

"Maybe... it gave up?" As soon as the Kougra said that, he wished he hadn't.

Two large, black talons pierced either side of the ship, almost skewering Jeffory. The other embedded itself right above Jack's head, and he shrieked like a little girl.

"We've been seized!" Jeffory shouted over the roaring wind that was now blowing inside the ship. Jack's teeth were chattering when he retorted, "Thanks for the input there, Jeff!" He was gripping his armrests tightly and looked about ready to wet himself.

They cried out in terror as the talons let go of their ship, sending it plummeting towards the ground once again. This time, however, Hunter was unable to right their course and he cried over his shoulder, "BRACE YOURSELVES!"

And everything went black.

**(A/N Cliffhanger, hanging from a CLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIF! And that's why he's called "Cliffhanger!" Sorry, couldn't resist. Anyway, like stated on the other notes (y'know, at the top of the page) I'll be getting the updates back on course when I post the next chapter Friday. So, please leave a review, and I'll see you all soon.**

**LaDude out.)**


	3. Chapter 3

**(A/N Well, hello, hello, hello! I'm a man of my word! So, here's the next chapter. Aren't ya proud of me?! And also, no reviews yet? Aww. Here's hoping for a change.**

**Disclaimer: I, LaDude111, do not own Neopets. I'm _really_ going to enjoy writing this for every chapter.**

**Defenders of Neopia 2: Brotherhood Chapter 3: Of Monsters and more Monsters.**

What was up with Jeffory and waking up in dark places?

Once again, Jeffory lay in the Void. He was face-down and sore all over, but he pushed himself to his feet. "Strange," he muttered, rubbing his stiff neck. "I thought in the dream world, people shouldn't be in pain..." he said to himself, looking around. But then again, this was more like the nightmare world. After working the kinks out of his neck, he began trecking forward. He knew the Voice, or rather, the Voice's owner, was here somewhere.

It felt like he was walking for ages, and nothing came into view. This Void stretched on for miles and miles, and Jeffory was losing hope. What was he supposed to do in a situation like this? After what had happened in this place a year ago, Jeffory had realized this place wasn't a "Dream World". Everything here was real, and that terrified him.

Jeffory suddenly felt a chill go down his spine, and he froze, shuddering. As if in a horror movie, he _slowly_ turned around, hoping he wouldn't meet the Voice in person. When he turned completely around, he saw... nothing. Absoloutly NOTHING.

"I coulda sworn there was someone there..." he muttered. If it wasn't the owner of the Voice, then who was it? Were there things worse than the Voice in this void?

Images of demons filled his mind, and he shuddered once more, taking a hesitant glance over his shoulder. He honestly hoped he wouldn't run into something like the creatures in his nightmares and what he had seen in those scary movies.

As he was thinking, Jeffory suddenly felt yet another chill go down his spine. This time, he did a 180 in an instant, hoping to catch... whatever was stalking him before it took off again.

What he saw instead, was more disturbing than anything his young mind had thought up.

In the middle of the Void, there was a large tank. The tank itself was connected to a large, suspicious machine. There was a figure within this tank, but Jeffory was too far to see what it was.

As he slowly moved closer to this menacing machine, he was able to study it further. There were many multi-colored wires hanging from the tank, and on the side of it was a keypad, to insert a password, Jeffory guessed. On the top of the tank, faded letters spelt, "Project D.W."

When he reached the tank, he nearly jumped out of his skin.

There was... a creature within this tank, and it looked worse than he had ever thought something could look. The creature had rough, unclean, white fur, long, black claws on its feet and hands and lifeless, black eyes. The creature was breathing heavily, revealing its many rows of long, razor sharp teeth. Its ears drooped and its face was bruised as well. The creature was naked, and its arms and legs were shackled.

Its hands were up against the side of the tank and were bleeding black blood that sizzled when it dripped off of its body and hit the floor of the tank.

Jeffory felt an urge to vomit at the sight.

Suddenly, the creature sprang to life, lifting its head to snarl at Jeffory. Before the kyrii could jump back in surprise, he froze in terror. The creature's eyes seemed to bore into him, making him feel exposed. He began to shake in terror. He had never felt such an evil emnate from something. Not even Kass was this twisted, this tainted. Never had he been so frightened he felt like he would be petrified for all of eternity.

The creature began to move its hands around, trying to wriggle them free from the sides of the tank and it did the same with its feet.

Jeffory almost died of fright, when it freed one hand, slamming it against the glass, cracking it. The rest of its limbs were freed, and if fell through the glass, landing face-flat on the ground, writhing. Jeffory could only watch, still shaking.

After what felt like an eternity, its writhing suddenly seased and it lay still. Slowly, it raised its face to look at Jeffory, its eyes once again boring into him. Jeffory took a step back, just now grasping that there was no longer anything keeping the thing from him. Around him, he could swear that the Void grew darker, colder.

With an otherworldy roar, the creature lunged at him, reaching for his throat.

* * *

Jeffory woke with a yelp, clutching his throat. After staying in the same, terrified posistion for several moments, Jeffory slowly released his throat, not believing he had witnessed such a horror.

He looked around his surroundings, confused. "Wh-where... am I?" he asked himself, not recognising the area at all. Then he remembered. The monster had knocked their ship out of the sky! And he had survived...?

He looked down to see that he was still strapped into his seat. However, the inside of the ship was now tight and cluttered, making it hard to see where the others were.

Jeffory reached for his seatbelt, but grimaced at the sharp pain that shot through his right arm. Deciding to go with his other arm, he unhooked the seat belt, and got to his feet.

Now that he was out of the seat, he could see most of the ship's interior, which had had all been destroyed. Computer screens, were smashed in, leaving them sparking and with glass laying all around. The chairs that had not been occupied were dented in strange ways, making them look like something out of a Dr. Seuss book.

Keeping low as to not hit his head on the smashed in roof, he moved over to the other chairs, finding Jack and Kendra, but not Hunter.

"Where is he..." Jeffory muttered, worried. He reached out to Jack and shook his shoulder, getting a loud whine in response. "I dun waaaaaaaaana get uuuup, Mumsy..." he whined, drunkenly. Jeffory face-palmed. "Come on, Jack... get up!" he said, shaking the mynci harder.

To Jeffory's relief, Jack stirred. Jeffory didn't wait for him to get out of his seat, however, and went over to Kendra, waking her up in the same manner as Jack.

"Hey, you're up!" a voice said behind Jeffory, making him jump and pull out his sword. Jeffory let out a sigh of relief when he saw he was pointing his sword at Hunter, who was looking rather pale.

"Oh! Sorry, Hunter; you surprised me." Hunter shook his head. "I-i-it's all good...!" he squeaked, shaking. "Just put that thing away!" he squeaked. "Sorry, sorry..." Jeffory muttered, putting the sword away

After the four teens had returned to their senses, Jeffory looked over all of them.

They looked like hell.

Jeffory himself, was covered in cuts and bruises from the crash, blood leaked out of the cuts and stuck in his hair and his lip was cut.

One of Jack's eyes was swollen shut, probabaly from hitting his head from the impact, one arm was turning in an odd direction, he had a slight limp, and he too had many cuts.

Hunter had by far taken the worse beating, his nose was dented from hitting the yoke when he lost conciousness, his right eye was swollen shut, his lip was bleeding badly and even more cuts and bruises went up and down his body, all leaking blood, staining his clothes.

Kendra got off relatively easy, only having several bruises and one cut on her right cheek.

Jeffory looked around their crashed airship. "So what now?" he asked. "If we go out there now, we're gonna HAVE to fight," he said. Larx was right; it was a good thing they went prepared after all.

Jeffory nodded. "Right. Kendra, we need you to heal us so we can go out there and complete our mission," Jeffory ordered. Kendra nodded, already moving over to Hunter to heal him. Jeffory was slightly surprised that she hadn't gone to Jack first, seeing how close the two were.

Deciding it was not important, Jeffory sat back down in his seat, thinking about how they would fight an aerial monster. Jack had experiance with dragons, so maybe he could ask him...

After about fifteen minutes, the team was in tip-top shape. The only evidence that they had been hurt were the blood stains on their clothes, and even those could easily be washed off.

Kendra had sat back down in her seat, panting heavily. Feeling guilty for asking her to use so much energy, he moved over to her, crouching, so he could see her face. She was sweating, and looked as if she were ready to collapse. "Ken?" he said, and she raised a fin to silence him. "I'm... f-fine..." she breathed, the words coming out shaky.

Jeffory shook his head. "No. No, you need to rest," he told her sternly, but she shook her head, getting out of her chair. "I'm fine. Really!" she insisted, and Jeffory sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Kendra..." he sighed. What was he going to do with her?

"Fine," he relented, though not happy about it in the least. Then, as an afterthought, he said: "Jack, keep an eye on her." The mynci in question flashed him a cheesey grin. "My pleasure," he responded, and Jeffory rolled his eyes while Kendra turned an interesting shade of pink. Satisfied, Jeffory was tghe first to climb out of the mangled remains of the Air Slasher.

Even with his heavy coat, Jeffory was hit with the full force of the bitter cold. The wind howled, whipping his hair about, but he did the best to scan the skies, hoping to catch a glimpse of the monster. He let out a low sigh when he spotted nothing. Had the monster presumed them all to be dead, lost interest and flew away?

Before he could muse further, a dull "thump" caused him to whirl around, sword drawn again.

The source of the "thump" was (surprise) Jack. He was laying face-down in the snow, and letting out a string of curses that were muffled.

"Stay on your guard," he warned them all. "It could be anywhere."

The shadow of Fairy Land floating above them, made the area feel darker than it really was. Jeffory couldn't help but be slightly over-whelmed by the memories of being out in this plain only a year ago with his best friends.

Although, they didn't really have a plan for what they were going to do to defeat Kass, and they were hot, tired and thirsty, Jeffory had found a strange sense of enjoyment in those days. He couldn't help but grin a bit at the memories of the three of them, gathered around a hastily-made camp fire, laughing at Jack's stupid ghost stories.

Jeffory's train of thought was broken, however, when someone let out an ear-splitting scream behind him, causing him to whirl around, once again.

"Kendra, what's wrong-" he started, only to stop dead in his tracks. Kendra was perfectly fine, so was Jack, but not Hunter.

Said kougra, was wailing at the sight of his ruined "baby", not caring that the snow was getting in his clothes as he rolled around, sobbing. Jeffory surmised the screech had come from Hunter, and turned around, looking around the area again. His only mistake was sheating his sword.

Suddenly, the hair on Jeffory's back stood up, and he dove to his left.

The dragon had returned!

It swooped down at them, attempting to catch them off guard. Jack pulled himself off of the ground, teeth chattering. His attempt to escape from the dragon landed him face-flat in the cold snow. Again.

"I-I-I-I-I th-think, we found our monster!" he informed them through his chattering teeth. "Thanks, Captain Obvious!" snapped Hunter, crouching down into a pouncing position.

Jack eyed the dragon as it circled above them like a hawk. "Hey!" he exclaimed. Jeffory, risked a glance over at his friend. "What?" he responded, his eyes returning to the monster above them. "That looks like the same dragon I fought last year! Y'know on Mt. Legend?" he told them.

Kendra looked at him funny. "What? But you said it exploded into crystal shards!" she reminded him, confused. "Yeah, crystal shards don't come back to kill you!" Hunter agreed with Kendra.

Jeffory called out to his friends, "NEVERMIND THAT!" They all stopped their bickering to see the dragon strike once again. "It's comin' back!" Jack shouted, as it swooped down again.

The Silverwing dove at them in a downwards spiral, catching most of the team off guard. Fortunately, almost all of them were able to move out of the way at the last minute. ALMOST all of them.

Mid-dive, Jeffory felt something seize him around the torso. The Silverwing managed to catch Jeffory whilst swooping over them! "Ah, crap!" Jeffory cursed, watching the ground disappear as he was lifted into the grey sky.

"Drop him!" Jack yelled at the air-borne creature, pointing his gun at it. Above him, Jeffory shouted down: " 'Drop him!?' " outraged. Jack immeadiately changed his strategy. "DON'T drop him, don't drop him!"

Hunter called out to Jack just as he was about to pull the trigger. "Wait!"

Jack groaned. "Now he's outta range!" he complained, lowering the gun to his side. Hunter ignored the mynci's complaints and trudged through the snow over to him. "He's moving too fast! By the time the shot gets to him, he'll have moved out of the intended area!" he explained in a single breath. "In the worst case scenario, you could hit Jeffory!" he finished, now panting.

Jack sighed loudly.

Above, Jeffory could've sworn the two were conversing. What was there to talk about?! He was about to be a pancake if the Dragon continued to squeeze him. "Can't... breathe..." he wheezed, struggling in vain. The Silverwing responded by squeezing even tighter. Jeffory could feel its talons digging into his skin, causing him to groan weakly as blood leaked out of his wounds, dirtying his clothes farther.

Jack pointed his gun up at the monstrosity yet again. "Alright, ugly..." he muttered, clearing his mind as he lined up the shot. He fired a shot a little before the Dragon reached the area he was aiming for.

"BAM!" he cheered, jumping for joy.

The Silverwing flew straight into the shot. Caught off guard by the sudden pain, the creature began flailing in the air, causing itself to lose altitude. As it continued to panic, its grip on Jeffory began to loosen. Jeffory, barely breathing, managed to pull himself out of the beast's massive foot and he fell towards the ground.

His vision was blurred. He had lost alot of blood and he was having trouble catching his breath. The cold wind whipped his messy hair around and hit his face hard, forcing him to close his eyes as his speed increased.

Kendra, however, was fully alert. She pointed her fin at Jeffory and concentrated; focusing her mind on slowing her leader's decent. After several agonizing moments, Jeffory's decent slowed to a halt, before he was placed gently on the cold snow, staining it with his blood. Kendra made a beeline for him and immeadiately began tending to his wounds.

Jeffory vision returned to normal and he sat up, holding his head. "Thanks, Kendra..." he told her, appreciatively. She nodded, helping him to his feet. "Anytime, Boss," she responded. But then she faltered, falling out of the air, and Jeffory caught her. She wormed out of his grip, muttering, "I'm fine," and he sighed.

Jeffory looked down at the now-red snow. "Nice color..." he muttered. He pulled his sword out of the sheathe and turned to see Jack and Hunter running over to him, the latter shooting several warning shots at the dragon circling overhead.

"You all right, Jeff?" asked Hunter. Jeffory nodded. "Yeah, thanks," he said. "Don't worry about me, though. We have to stop that dragon!" he ordered. The rest of the team nodded. "Right on time!" Jack said as the Silverwing began diving at them again. Jack opened fire at it, Jeffory and Hunter moved out of the way, circling behind it.

As soon as the Silverwing was close to the ground, Jeffory made a running leap, successfully grabbing onto one of the scales on its tail. Hanging on with one hand, Jeffory put the handle of his sword in his mouth, working his way up the tail.

Below, Hunter let out an outraged cry. "What the hell are you doing?!" he squawked, wide-eyed. Jeffory, mouth full and hanging on for dear life, ignored his friend and continued climbing up the Dragon's long spine. "_What am I doing up here, again?!" _Jeffory thought to himself, furious.

Below, one of Jack's shots missed his intended target and flew at Jeffory. Eyes widening, Jeffory ducked, the shot flying over his head. If his mouth wasn't full, he would have shouted at Jack to watch it. "_I can't belive I'm doing this!"_ he thought bitterly, forcing himself to continue climbing. By now, the Silverwing had realized that it had a stowaway on its back and began trying to shake this insignifigant little pest off.

Jeffory had to hang onto one of the scales with all of his might as the dragon did a loop-di-loop, nearly shaking him off. At this rate, Jeffory would fall off before he could reach the dragon's head! He needed a distraction. Below, Jack must've read his mind, as a bullet hit the Silverwing clean in the face, stunning it long enough for Jeffory to continue his desperate climb.

The cold wind pounded against his body, whipping his hair in his face, making it difficult to see where he was going and what he was reaching for. Even so, Jeffory perservered, determined to stop the winged menace. By some miracle, Jeffory succeeded in reaching the Sileverwing's large, ugly head.

The creature let out a low growl, fixing its red eyes on the figure atop its head. Within an instant it wished it hadn't. As soon as Jeffory reached its noggin, he had taken his sword out of his mouth and stabbed it into the creature's right eye. The Silverwing let out an ear-splitting screech, thrashing about wildly. Jeffory, no longer able to hold on, was knocked off of its head. Arrow of Life was shaken out of the Silverwing's eye and plummeted towards the ground.

As he fell, Jeffory caught sight of his sword falling towards him. It would counter-productive to be skewered bu his own weapon, huh?

He caught it as it got close enough to him, and pointed it at the massive dragon charging at him. As his speed increased, Jeffory desperately hoped he could get out of this one alive when all of the sudden, his body burst into flames.

Below, Kendra was in an uroar. "What the hell is happening to him?!" she screamed, panicking. Hunter and Jack just stared. "Just like on the Station..." Jack muttered. Hunter just nodded dumbly. "I think..." Hunter muttered. "The odds have turned in our favor," Jack finished for him, getting a slow nod from said kougra. Kendra looked at them as if they were insane.

Jeffory, just like last year, was a red blur. Rushing upwards in the Silverwing's direction. The dragon just continued its dive, speed increasing, as did Jeffory's.

"They're gonna crash!" Jack exclaimed, grabbing Hunter's ears and squeezing them. "OUCH!" the kougra screamed, wrenching his head away from the worried mynci's hands. "Quit it! I am not your personal stress-ball!" he scolded, hiding behind Kendra.

Jeffory and the Silverwing were about to collide, when the dragon suddenly swerved away, as if it knew it had no chance. Jeffory, however, was going to finish the battle, whether the Silverwing liked it or not. Jeffory followed his target, approaching from the rear. They began climbing, higher, higher, higher...

Soon, his companions could no longer see him, as he, and his target disappeared into the clouds above. The Silverwing, believing to be out of danger, straighted itself, now flying forward. It focused its good eye on the sky ahead, wanting to leave this area far behind it.

We can't always get what we want.

Jeffory, appearing out of nowhere, sped downwards through the Silverwing's spine, coming out of its stomach. Blood poured out of the gaping hole in its stomach as its lifeless body fell towards the ground. Jack, Hunter and Kendra scattered out of the way, avoiding being crushed by its massive body.

Snow flew through the air from the force of the Silverwing's landing, covering the scrambling trio in it. Said Silverwing's landing could be heard throughout the entire plains, causing the wildlifee around the area to scatter in a frenzy, frightened by the deafening boom.

The area around the downed dragon seemed to be empty for several moments, when a head appeared from beneath the white blanket. Jack let out a loud scream, pulling himself out of the pile of snow and running around flailing his arms. Hunter soon made an appearence as well, followed by Kendra. These two's reactions were nowehere near as erratic as Jack's, however.

Said mynci continued running in circles screaming, "SNOW DOWN MY SHIRT! SNOW DOWN MY SHIRT! SNOW! DOWN! MY! SHIRT!" As usual, the other two ignored him. "Where's Jeffory?" asked Hunter, shaking the snow off of his clothes. Kendra, who was brushing the snow out of her black hair looked up at the sky. "Found him," she said, softly.

Jeffory descended towards the ground slowly, still surrounded by crimson flames. As he neared the ground, the snow around him melted away almost immeadiately, revealing dead, charred grass. The flames disappeared from Jeffory's body as soon as his feet touched the ground, and he collapsed onto his knees, panting heavily.

The team, astounded by his incredible feat, just stood staring at him before regaining their senses and running to his side. "Hey, hey, hey! You all right, Jeff?" asked Jack, placing a hand on his friend's shoulder. Jeffory attempted to nod, but just continued panting. His vision was getting blurry and his exhuastion was getting the better of him.

His friend's concerned voices were becoming garbled and distorted as his vision grew (if possible) blurrier. With a weak groan, he collapsed, face-first onto the ground, losing his conciousness.

**(A/N Man, I should really stop with the cliffhangers... But they're fun! Thanks for reading, and please, please, please leave a review! I'll see you all next Friday!**

**LaDude out.)**


	4. Chapter 4

**(A/N I'm baaaaaaaack! So, if anyone's reading this, you'll probably notice that this was uploaded... Two days late. I meant to do it Friday, but my laptop was left in the car, and it was really cold... It sort of froze. It was about one in the morning when I got home, and simply wasn't in the mood to wait up for my computer to return to room temperature for me to do the editing and uploading of this chapter. So, anyway, here's chapter four, and I'm going to try and get (once again) back on schedule.)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Neopets. That's all I got this chapter. Yeah. ...'Kay.**

**Defenders of Neopia 2: Brotherhood chapter 4: Those awkward moments...**

Jeffory's eyes opened slowly, his vision hazy. Where was he? His head ached, as did the rest of his body. It felt like he had been hit by a truck. When his vision cleared, he turned his head to the side, with difficulty, and saw a familiar face.

"Hey! You're awake!" Jack greeted, louder than Jeffory would've liked. His friend was grinning ear-to-ear. Jeffory absently wondered if there was anything that could dampen the mynci's spirits. Had his brain been working correctly, he would have known that there was, in fact, multiple things that could do so. He looked around, and realized he was in the remains of the Air Slasher.

"Yeah, and now I'm deaf..." muttered Jeffory, shooting Jack an irritated look. Jack either didn't notice, or didn't care, as he began to speak excitedly.

"But dude, that was so cool!" he exclaimed. Jeffory just tilted his head to the side, confused. "Wha-" he started only to be cut off by Jack. "When you were all like, 'I'M FALLING!'" he made an exaggerated motion with his arms, nearly swatting Jeffory in the face. "And then you were like 'boom, fire!' and then you killed the dragon!" Jack finished loudly, panting heavily.

Jeffory was still confused, before realization struck him. "Oh... that... thing?" he asked, trying to find the proper word to describe the phenomenon. Jack nodded, understanding what he was trying to say. "Yeah! You did that when you killed Kass, right?" he asked. Jeffory only nodded slowly, still trying to remember exactly what had happened. He didn't really remember anything but bits and pieces. It was different than when the Voice took over. Those moments were far too memorable.

"Where are the others?" Jeffory questioned, looking around the remains of the ASM2. Jack sat down in the chair next to Jeffory and scratching the back of his own head. "Ahh, Hunter's outside trying to see if he can fix the Air Slasher and Kendra's trying to get in touch with the Academy.

"She said there was no signal out here, though, so now I don't know what she's up to..." Jeffory noticed the look that appeared in Jack's eyes when he mentioned Kendra but decided not to address it directly, instead bringing up the subject of the Christmas dance.

"So..." Jeffory started, a sly look in his eye. Jack's grin slowly left his face, not at all liking his friend's tone. "Yeah...?" he responded slowly, looking awkward. "Who are you taking to the dance? I mean, really!" Jeffory added the last part when Jack's mouth had opened, no doubt going to attempt a bold lie. "It's... none of your business!" Jack declared, crossing his arms. Jeffory rolled his eyes at the immature position his friend was in. He looked almost like a five year-old. With a shrug, Jeffory said; "Fine. I'll get it out of you eventually." Jack grumbled in response.

* * *

Outside, Hunter was a mess. "It's hopeless... absolutely hopeless..." he moaned, dropping a broken piece of the airship in the snow. He then proceeded to drop face-first to the ground and wail into the ice-cold snow. Behind him, Kendra rolled her eyes, putting her cellphone back in her pocket. "Hunter! I'm trying to concentrate!" she snapped, for the upteenth time. Hunter stopped his death wails for long enough to give her a pitiful glance over his shoulder.

"YOU CAN'T POSSLIBLY UNDERSTAND HOW I FEEL!" he shrieked, returning to his sobbing heap. Kendra just sighed. Her exasperated look turned to one of relief when she saw Jeffory stumble out of the destroyed airship. She cringed when he banged his head on the way out. She floated over to his side, placing a fin on his shoulder. "Are you okay?"

He nodded, clutching his skull. "Oh, yeah, brilliant!" he hissed. She rolled her eyes. "What exactly did you do to it?" she asked, pointing at the remains of the Silverwing. Jeffory sighed. "I really don't know..." he answered giving her an apologetic look. "But Jack said I used it at the Space Station a year ago. You know, when I was fighting Kass?" Kendra nodded, motioning for him to continue. "But other than bits and pieces, I can't remember ANYTHING about those times when I... go all Hot-head," he finished with a slightly bitter chuckle.

Kendra nodded, telling him he didn't have to continue. "Well, you saved our lives back there, Jeff," she said to him, making him chuckle. "Yeah... Hey, any luck getting someone to pick us up?" he asked, hopefully. She shook her head, with a sigh. "No, I can't get a signal in this damn place!" she growled. Jeffory just stared at her, flabbergasted. It was funny, he could've sworn he had heard her curse. But that wasn't right. Kendra never cursed.

Right?

Kendra realized what she had done, and covered her mouth with her fins. "Oh my God! I just cursed! I shouldn't do stuff like that! That's your guys' job!" she exclaimed, pointing a fin at him. Jeffory glared at her, unamused. Behind her, Jack stumbled out of the air slasher, wearing an odd look on his face. "Hey! Are you calling us men _VULGAR?!"_ he asked, looking as if he had been struck.

Kendra stopped her fussing and looked at him for a moment. "Well, no... I meant..." she trailed off awkwardly. "'Cause if you _are_..." Jack paused for dramatic effect. Kendra tensed. "...thank you!" he finished, a dopey grin on his face. Jeffory face-palmed, and even Hunter stopped wailing to stare blankly at him.

"Anyway..." Kendra said, changing the subject. "I can't get in touch with the Academy and it's getting colder now!" she was obviously beginning to panic. And for good reason. Jeffory could see the sun disappearing over the mountains in the distance. "Damn, more and more monsters are going to be coming out after dark..." he muttered.

"I don't like the dark..." muttered Hunter looking over his shoulder, obviously on edge. Jack groaned. "Oh, grow a pair, Hunt!" he said, pointing at his nether-regions. Kendra looked revolted, Jeffory face-palmed yet again and Hunter looked insulted.

They fell into an awkward silence, before Jeffory suddenly felt a pull in his chest. It was coming from the direction of the Silverwing. He began walking away from his friends and towards the Silverwing. Kendra looked at him in worry, and Jack mirrored her look. "Hey, Jeff? Where ya goin'?" he called. But Jeffory ignored him-no- he didn't even hear him. All he could hear were the strange sounds coming from the downed dragon. It was a... humming sound.

As he grew closer, the humming grew much, much louder. And on top of that, he could swear his legs were moving on their own. As soon as he got to the dragon's side, he dropped to his knees, the rotting body's stench filled his nose and it made him gag. Even so, he continued listening to the sound. It was no longer a hum. It was a voice.

"Oh, no..." Jeffory muttered to himself, suddenly feeling alone.

**"Je...ffffffff...ory..."** it hissed, barely above a whisper. This voice sounded different than the sound he had begun to associate with the being within him. It sounded quieter. Calm, perhaps? As soon as it had started, however, the voice stopped. It was as if it had said his name in a dying breath... "Jeff?" Hunter called from the airship, but like with Jack, Jeffory did not hear him. He began circling the Silverwing silently. When he reached its right leg, he stopped and dropped to his knees, as something shiny caught his attention.

He reached over to its talon and noticed something chained around it. "What is..." he muttered. He pulled the chain off of it and examined it. It was a tag. And on it was...

"Project D.W..." Jeffory muttered. Horror struck him when he remembered seeing that in his dream; his nightmare. He had hoped it had been just a dream... but this "Project" was real and this...was the result. The increased ferocity, even more tolerance to pain... Jeffory began to shake.

"Jeffory!" Jack's voice snapped him out of his trance. "You are SERIOUSLY freaking me out!" Hunter added. Jeffory stood up and turned back to his friends, pocketed the tag, and walked back to them.

"What was that about?" Hunter asked, arching a brow. Jeffory took out the tag, and showed it to Hunter. "What is..." the kougra trailed off, perplexed. "I've seen it," Jeffory told him. "In one of my dreams," he added when Jack and Hunter sent him a confused stare. "You need to show this to the Commander," said Hunter. Jeffory's eyes narrowed. "And why should I do that?" he snapped. Hunter narrowed his eyes as well. "Because it may have something to do with the strange monster behaviour," he began. "it may hold a clue as to how we can put a stop to it. Y'know, defend Neopia. _Our job," _he finished with finality, and Jeffory glared, but nodded.

Then, he noticed Kendra's lack of participation in the prior conversation, and looked over to her. She had one fin over her ear, and the other was holding her cell-phone. She looked pretty pleased with herself, and Jeffory hoped she had gotten ahold of someone.

"Did you get someone?!" asked Jack loudly, and Jeffory silenced him by clamping a hand over his mouth. Kendra gave them an appreaciative glance before letting out an excited squeal.

"Oh, um... This is Kendra Mayer from the Brightvale Defenders Academy! Yes, we are currently in the middle of the Fairy Plains. We were sent on a mission but our ship crashed and we're stranded," Kendra explained the situation to whoever was on the opposite line. Jeffory wasn't sure if it was because of the bitter cold, but her cheeks were turning red. Who was she talking to?

"Yeah, thanks," she said before hanging up, still red in the face. She placed the phone back in her pocket before looking over to see her friends giving her weird looks. "Umm..." she started, awkwardly. "Who were ya talkin' to?" asked Hunter, getting to the point. "Oh, um it was Thomas," she explained. _Thomas?!_ thought Jeffory, confused.

"Yeah, um that was the techo you met last year... You know, he hangs out with Scott and Josh..." she was obviously embarrased. Jack looked violated. "What was the point in calling _him_?" asked Jack, sounding a little bit harsher than intended. Or maybe it _was_ intended. Jeffory wasn't sure.

How had she even gotten his number, Jeffory wondered.

"I don't think I care much for your tone, Jack, but he and the other two were going to pick us up. Turns out they're passing back through here on their way back from their mission," she explained, looking irritated. Jack fell silent, wearing a sour look on his face. "Umm... When will they be here...?" Jeffory asked Kendra, afraid she would snap at him as well. Fortunately, she didn't. "About half-an-hour," she responded curtly. Jeffory arched a brow at the strange way she was acting, but he nodded. He didn't feel like getting on her bad side.

The next thirty minutes were quite awkward. The only person Jeffory would dare to talk to was Hunter, who was slightly pre-occupied with loading the smashed pieces of the ASM2 into the remains where the group was waiting. Kendra had a small orb of fire floating on her palm and was sitting in the middle of the cramped remains, warming the team up while they waited.

The sun had gone down and most of the group (despite Hunter, who was finishing up) didn't dare go back outside, due to the bitter cold and the monsters lurking about. Hunter stumbled back into the ASM2 holding the last, tiny pieces of the airship and placing them on the ground. "Okay, when they pick us up, they'll be able to grab this as well!" he said, quite proudly.

"You really think you can fix it?" Jack spoke for the first time in awhile. Hunter hesitated. After a moment, he nodded. "I'm about forty-five percent sure," he estimated. Jack opened his mouth to respond, but a loud humming filled their ears, and he froze, his mouth hanging open.

The group all gave each other "Uh-oh" looks, before getting to their feet and hudding together. Jeffory feared it was another monster. Maybe another Silverwing? A relative, perhaps. "Uh-uh..." muttered Hunter, voicing all of their thoughts. The humming grew louder and bright lights filled the small, cramped airship.

"CLOSE ENCOUNTERS!" Jack screamed.

Suddenly, they felt themselves being lifted into the air... up, up, up...

**(A/N Alrighty. A pretty short chapter, but there are some important things in this chapter that will come into play later, so this chapter is pretty important. Not a lot to say here, really. Please leave a review, and I'll see you all next time.**

**LaDude out.)**


	5. Chapter 5

**(A/N Well, dang. It's been almost three months since I last updated. Mostly because I've been busier than I expected to be (Isn't it weird when you suddenly have a life?) but I'm back, and hopefully will be back on schedule from here on out.)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Neopets. I just don't. We good? Does that satisfy you? No? ...Well, that's too bad.**

**Defenders of Neopia 2: Brotherhood chapter 5: Familar faces.**

As they ascended, Hunter began muttering all of the possible situations that they could be involved in. Jeffory could have sworn he heard Hunter say something about a government conspiracy, but he didn't comment on it. Kendra was obviously frightened and didn't seem to notice she was clutching Jack's arm. Jeffory had his hand on Arrow of Life's handle. As the cold wind whooshed through the holes in the tattered airship, Jeffory noted, with irritation, the eerie howling sound it made just added to the suspense.

Maybe Hunter was right and they _had_ been captured by aliens.

At last, they stopped ascending and Hunter stopped babbling. "Uhh..." Jack started, only to be cut off by Hunter. The kougra's ears were twitching and his claws had extended. "There's someone outside..." he whispered. Jeffory strained his ears to listen as well. After listening for a moment he muttered: "Footprints." getting a nod from Hunter. Kendra let go of Jack's arm and held up her palm, charging it with magic.

Suddenly, voices filled their ears. "How in the hellabit do you _OPEN_ this thing?!" groaned an exasperated voice from outside the room. Jack slightly loosened the grip on his gun, giving the door an odd look. "Hey, that sounds like-" he started, but Jeffory shushed him.

The voices continued. "There should be a switch somewhere," a new, quieter voice said to the first one. "Start feeling up the door!" the new voice commanded. Now there were two things going through Jeffory's mind: Good Lord, did that sound dirty, and those two voices were extremely familiar.

Before Jeffory could try to figure out who the voices belonged to, a loud bang sounded from the other side of the door, causing them all to jump. "I said _feel_ the door, not violate it! _Feel!_ Like you would to that, what's-her-name... Myra!"

In spite of the current situation, Jeffory, Jack and Hunter had to stifle some snickers. He couldn't see her face, but Jeffory was sure Kendra looked disgusted.

Another, much deeper voice responded to the second voice. "Don't make me laugh. If Josh could get Myra to take anything off, unless it was her shoe to hit him in the face, I would _seriously _eat this katana," the voice said. Josh? Katana? There was no mistaking it; that was the trio he had worked with last year to protect the Academy: Scott, Josh and Tom.

The door opened, revealing said trio. Tom, the tall, shadow techo, was looking at the other two like they were completely insane. After taking his exasperated gaze off of his partners, he looked inside the destroyed airship to see Jeffory, Jack, Hunter and Kendra. Jeffory noted that his eyes seemed to linger on Kendra for a rather long time. He also noticed that Jack saw this, and his eyes narrowed.

Jeffory immeadiately knew things were going to get tense. Jack strutted over to Tom, perhaps he was attempting a swagger. Jeffory thought he looked like he had to make a trip to the restroom. Jack extended his hand to the much taller teen. "The name's Jack! I'm a VERY close friends with Kendra, jus' sayin'," he said matter-of-factly. Tom arched a brow, giving the mynci's hand a disdainful look. "Thanks for the update, Shorty; just means I have no competition," he said smugly. Jack lowered his hand, balling it into a fist. To his left, Jeffory noticed Kendra flush.

Scott Benson, a starry scorchio, quickly made his way over to the two teens currently locked in a stare-down, pushing between them. "Hey, hey, hey! We're all friends here, right?" he asked, looking at both of them nervously. Tom just scoffed and Jack oh, so maturely stuck his tongue out at the techo. Tom took a menacing step towards him, nearly knocking Scott over. "Right?!" Scott repeated, giving Tom a stern look. To Jeffory's surprise, the techo stepped down, even though he could obviously take both Jack _and_ Scott.

Scott made his relief very audiable, before he turned to the rest of the group within the ruined airship. "Hey, guys! Look, I'm _really_ sorry about that little scare earlier, someone-" Scott turned to send a glare at Josh, who was rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. "-wanted to try out the new claw we got on our ship and I didn't get a chance to tell you guys we were on our way," the _s_corchio explained quickly. Jeffory shrugged. "No worries, we have a similar person in our team," he responded, grinning at Jack, hoping to cheer the mynci up. To his relief, Jack let out a chuckle.

Scott, keeping a wary eye on Tom, who looked ready to attack Jack on the spot, continued. "Well, we should get out of here, it's a little tight..." he proposed, giving Hunter an apologetic glance when the kougra looked at the floor, miserable. Jeffory nodded, patting Hunter on the back. "Yeah, let's get outta here," he agreed. So, with some difficulty and several curses (courtesy of Jack and Josh) they piled out of the remains of the Air Slasher Mark 2.

The airship they walked into was much different than theirs.

For one, it was _HUGE,_ with many more seats. The ship also had many complicated-looking devices in front of most of the seats. Jeffory couldn't help but get the the impression that this was more of a battleship than a mere transport vessel. On the wall to his right, there was a poster of an attractive female on a motorcycle.

A bikini didn't seem like something a biker would wear while on the road, to be honest.

Out of the corner of his eye, Jeffory noticed there were several doors leading out of the room, unlike Hunter's which didn't even have a bathroom. But despite the differences of the layout, the bridge's design wasn't very different than the Air Slasher's. "Dang..." Jack exclaimed, looking around the large room. Next to him, Hunter mirrored his exact facial expression and movements, clearly impressed. "You're telling me..." he responded, his jaw on the floor.

Josh grinned proudly. "Y'like?" he asked, placing his hands on his hips. Scott smacked him on the back of the head. Josh yelped and clutched his noggin. "Deflate for a minute, Mr. Ego," Scott said to him, getting a dirty look from his friend. Jeffory had to admit, this trio was pretty amusing. Kendra spoke up for the first time since they had gotten on the ship. "Where did you get this ship?" she asked, bewildered, voicing the rest of her team's thoughts.

Scott opened his mouth to explain, but Tom beat him to it. "Commander Larx is quite impressed with our recent work on the missions he's given us," he explained arrogantly. Jeffory couldn't help but notice how quick this guy was to pat himself on the back. Tom continued. "He actually gives credit where it's due and provides for the best students. Something Grey never did," he finished.

Jeffory felt fury rise in the pit of his stomach, but tried his best to think about something other than his anger. Food, video games, that biker chick in the bikini...

Josh however voiced his opinion. "Dude! Talk about no respect for the dead! Commander Grey was cool beans!" he snapped. However, he recoiled when Tom glared at him.

Hunter, desperate to postpone the inevitable confrontation, asked: "Soo... what mission were you guys on?" Fortunately, it worked. Josh turned away from Tom, looking eager to explain. "All the monster dudes have been acting really weird lately, so Commander Larx sent us out to deal with some terrorizing Sea Breeze," he explained. Jeffory, Hunter and Jack all sent eachother alarmed looks. That sounded familiar.

"What were these monsters like, may I ask?" Hunter quizzed, looking quite troubled. Scott spoke up. "It was really weird..." he started, sitting down in the Pilot's seat and typing in a few keys into the GPS and hitting the auto-pilot. "They were _REALLY_ tactical! They fought in groups of several different species! They never do that. And on top of that, the mayor told us they had been attacking the town over and over, doing more damage each time. What's weird is that before this year they stayed far away from it," he explained, perplexed.

"Hey, we had the same problem with some monsters attacking Altador last year! They were all super tactical and their attacks were co-ordinated..." Jack told the trio. Hunter spoke up. "Our mission was to take out a monster that was supposed to be long dead. The monster activity around towns and cities has been crazy..." he sighed, trailing off. They all sat in silence, pondering these strange happenings in their heads.

Talking about Altador made Jeffory think of Rich, Grey's brother. Jeffory wondered how the kind draik he had been over the past year. He had helped them out a couple of tight situations, the least they could do was pay him a visit. With that, Jeffory fell into a somewhat comfortable silence, taking a seat and leaning back against the headrest.

* * *

About an hour-and-a-half passed.

Jeffory kept his difference from Tom. Not like he could make conversation with him if he wanted to; the techo was all over Kendra. He was flirting shamlessly with her, and to Jeffory's surprise, Kendra's responses were equally flirtatious. Jack was sulking in his chair, occasionaly scowling at the two. Hunter was marveling the airship which was named "The Ares". Scott was flying the ship, while answering questions from said kougra. The loud snores coming from Josh's chair indicated that he wasn't available for conversation either.

Jeffory couldn't help but feel bad for Jack; he couldn't imagine it was fun watching the girl you liked be all over a jerk. _To be honest_, Jeffory thought to himself, _he did this to himself._ Jack really should have made a move faster. Jeffory had no clue why he didn't, though; Kendra obviously returned his affections.

Or she _used to,_ at least.

Looking over at his friend, he saw the mynci look at the two, his irritated expression changed to one of pain, like he knew he had lost his chance. Jeffory decided to cheer up his pal and got up, walking over to him and taking the empty seat next to him.

"Hey," Jack said to him, trying to fake his usual cheerful attitude but failing. "Hey, man," the kyrii responded. With a smirk, Jeffory looked over at Tom and Kendra and made a loud gagging sound. They stopped their interactions for a moment to look at him. When they did, he pounded his chest and cleared his throat, passing his sound effects off as a simple frog-in-the-throat. Either he was a really good actor, or the two didn't give a hoot. Either way, they returned to their "conversation".

Jeffory and Jack looked at eachother and broke down laughing.

After they calmed down, Jeffory looked at Jack with a serious expression. "Don't worry about them, man." Jack looked over at him. "Is it that obvious?" he asked, looking humiliated. "Well, you kinda look like a dogglefox who just got kicked..." Jeffory joked, getting a weak chuckle from his friend. "Yeah... But how can I not worry? I mean, they're all..." he made a lovey-dovey face, and Jeffory snickered. "She only likes him cause he's got the bad boy act going on. Other than that, he's got nothing going for him." When Jack didn't look convinced, Jeffory added: "She'll come around eventually." After a moment, Jack nodded, giving him a look of gratitude.

The two sat making idle conversation, most of it surrounding the dance and how Jack could find ways to ask Kendra to it before Tom did. Soon enough, the conversation switched over to Jeffory's girl problems. His nervousness around girls wasn't as bad as before, but he still got nervous when the time came to ask one out. The only girl he wasn't ridiculously nervous around was Kendra, who was more like his sister than anything else.

* * *

Half-an-hour later, the Ares pulled into the Academy's hangar. There, Jeffory's team was met by a very worried Jake, who ran over to them as soon as Jeffory's head had emerged from within the very large airship. "Jeff!" he greeted, sounding extremely relieved. "Hey, Jake! Sorry to keep you waiting," Jeffory said, once the floor stopped shaking. "Ah, no worries little guy, I'm just glad you're all still in one-piece," he responded with a toothy smile. "Ol' Larx would have my head if somethin' happened to his students." After a moment, Jake scoffed: "Or should I say, his reputation," he corrected himself bitterly.

Jake was usually fond of almost everyone he came into contact with. If _Jake_ didn't like someone, they were obviously bad news.

Jeffory wondered if it would look bad if Jake "accidentally" stepped on Larx...

"Hey, Big Guy!" Jack greeted the massive grarrl, fist-bumping the giant. Jeffory couldn't help but laugh as Jack recolied, holding his arm in pain. "Sorry 'bout that Jack, sometimes I just don't know my own strength!" he told the pained teen, who just squeaked in response.

Scott's team, along with Kendra and Hunter, piled out of the Ares. After greetings (and back-breaking hugs) were exchanged, Scott turned to Jeffory. "Hey, Jeff!" Scott said, getting the kyrii's attention. "Yeah?" "Let's both report to Commander Larx, since we've returned from our missions," he told Jeffory, who nodded. "Yeah, alright," he agreed, even though he'd rather not have to look at Larx's arrogant face again that day.

Scott told his team to help the others get the remains of the Air Slasher out of the Ares. He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a remote control, probably for the Ares, and tossed it to an eager Josh, only to have it intercepted by Tom. "You'll break it," the techo said to him curtly, getting a whine from Josh, who hung his head but nodded.

A very amusing team indeed.

**(A/N I enjoyed writing this chapter, getting to add some more situations the character's lives. Anyway, please leave a review telling me what you think and I'll see you all again next week. And also! Thanks to the reader who favorited this story; makes me glad to see that somebody's enjoying it!) **

**LaDude out.**


	6. Chapter 6

**(A/N Alas, I'm back on schedule. Here is chapter six. It's not a very long chapter, but hey, what're ya gonna do? Anyway, read on, my friends.) **

**Disclaimer: I still don't own Neopets. Get used to it. Like, that's how it's gonna stay. Seriously, guys.**

Jeffory and Scott weren't exactly eager to speak with the Commander, so they found themselves wandering in the general direction of his office.

As they made their way to Larx's office, they made idle conversation. Jeffory had asked Scott what he had intended to do over break. Scott explained that he hoped to spend it with his family. Like Jack, he didn't have the best report with his parents. Unlike the hyperactive mynci, Scott was attempting to fix it.

"I dunno, it's like they're just _looking_ to find something I'm not doing right. Well, my dad more than my mom. She just treats me like I'm still three," Scott told him. Jeffory couldn't help but think fondly of his days in the orphanage, and how his caretaker, Anna, seemed to always forget that he wouldn't stay two years old forever. His thoughts grew sour, however, as the Voice informed him he wasn't welcome there.

Not anymore.

As an uncomfortable silence fell over them, Scott asked Jeffory who he was taking to the dance (there's a shock). Jeffory almost face-palmed. "Haven't really thought about it." Jeffory tried to act in a nonchalant way, but the shifty eyes might not have helped his case much. "Anyway," Jeffory said before Scott pressed further "who're you taking?" Scott grinned. "Y'know that new girl, right?" he asked him, and Jeffory nodded.

The girl in question was from an Academy in western Neopia. She had just transferred to this, much larger Academy, and was, understandably, caught off-guard by just how massive it was. Her name was Alexis Russel and she was a starry kacheek. Scott had approached her and they hit it off, so it seemed.

"Well, I'm taking her!" Scott informed him, looking quite proud. Jeffory grinned, patting him on the back. "Right on, man!" he congratulated.

The stepped into the elevator, punched in the correct floor and waited. "So, why did Commander Larx give you guys the Ares, again?" Jeffory asked, still not really believing it. He hadn't meant to sound rude, and thankfully, Scott didn't look offended. "Tom layed it on thick, man. Told Larx how much of a fan he was, or something of the sort. He only gave us a couple of missions and before we knew it, we were sitting in that warsh-err-airship," Scott explained, stretching. Jeffory resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the mention of Tom being, well, Tom. "What's his deal, anyway?" Jeffory asked.

Scott chuckled. "Larx or Tom?" Jeffory rolled his eyes. "Larx is beyond me, but you seem to know Tom well enough."

Any kind of mirth in Scott's eyes disappeared as he let out a sigh. "We were really close in middle-school. We were both kind of, well, dorky. Then, we decided to come to the Academy. He got "cool" all of the sudden. Started working out, hitting on tons of girls, and developed a monster ego in his spare time."

The Benny Hill theme playing from the elevator's speakers felt out of place.

They fell into an awkward silence as they exited the elevator and headed down the hall.

Right before Jeffory knocked on Death's Door, Scott stopped him. Jeffory turned to look at him. "So, I'm not the only one who wants to bolt?" he asked hopefully. Scott's mouth twitched upwards slightly, but after a moment his face returned to being serious. "Tom's taken an interest in Kendra," he said matter-of-factly.

Jeffory rolled his eyes. "No, really? 'Cause I sure didn't notice!" He responded, his words laced with sarcasm. Scott glared at him. "This is serious!" he hissed, and Jeffory quit joking around. "Why are you telling me the obvious?" he asked. Scott sighed, growing impatient. "So you can prevent them from getting together, duh!"

Jeffory was going to tell Scott that adding "Duh" at the end of a sentence made him sound like a teenage girl, but decided against it.

"Look, Scott isn't the best with relationships, alright? Kendra doesn't deserve to be hurt," Scott said to him. Jeffory had never seen the scorchio so serious. "How do you expect me to play anti-Cupid?" Jeffory inquired. "Doesn't Jack have a thing for her?" asked Scott, and Jeffory sighed. "Yeah, but he's not doing anything about it," he shrugged. "Well, tell him to get his ass in gear," said Scott and knocked on the Commander's door before Jeffory could respond.

"Enter."

To the point, as usual.

They stepped into the office, Jeffory shutting the door behind him.

Larx gave Scott a pointed look, awaiting his report. Scott looked extremely uncomfortable, but took a seat. He sat stiff, and looked directly at Larx's forhead.

"We managed to push the monster's out of the town, sir. Damage to Sea Breeze was minimal, this time. However, it if we had gotten there any later, I don't think there would be much left to protect," Scott informed his Commander, who nodded, stroking his chin.

"Was it a specific species of monsters attacking this town?" Larx asked. Scott shook his head, still avoiding eye-contact.

Jeffory wondered if Scott was afraid of turning to stone.

"No, sir. They were varied. They were working as a team, coordinating their attacks. One monster, a Rammer, seemed to be the leader. Once we killed it, they backed off."

Larx "hmmed" in thought for a moment. "What of the town's current condition?"

"Like I said, damage was minimal, but their fortifications are all but destroyed. The monsters will most likely return as soon as new leader takes over. That concludes the report, sir." Larx nodded. "Very well, mission accomplished. Return to your dorm, Benson, well done."

With that, Scott saluted and left the room, giving Jeffory a "good luck" look.

Jeffory stood at attention, not interested in taking a seat. Well aware he hadn't waited for Larx's approval to begin his report, he spoke anyway.

"We defeated the monster in the Fairy Plains, sir. Unfortunately, our airship crashed, but the team was relatively unharmed."

Larx looked irritated that Jeffory hadn't waited for his permission to speak, but motioned for him to continue.

"Something troubles me, though: The monster we defeated was one that we had previously killed last year. A Silverwing Dragon, to be exact. I'm sure you know all about Silverwing's and that there is only supposed to be one in existence," Jeffory added. For once, he appreciated Hunter's random facts.

He could have sworn he heard a low growl escape Larx's throat at that comment.

"Once it was dead, we checked its remains, and found this." He reached into his pocket and pulled out the tag, handing it to Larx. The chia looked at the object closely, scanning every inch of it.

After what felt like an eternity, a look of anger appeared on his face. No, it wasn't anger. He looked almost afraid. He fixed his eyes on Jeffory, snarling: "Why did you bring me trash, Knights?!" Jeffory narrowed his eyes. "Excuse me?" he asked, trying hard not to get angry. "Do not make me repeat myself, boy! This is utter garbage!" he emphasized his point by tossing the tag into a corner.

Ignoring Jeffory's protests, he stood up, gripping the edge of his desk so tightly that his hands began to turn white. "When you bring me a report, I don't expect to be handed trash, understood?!" he snarled, and Jeffory lost it. "How is that trash! It has to be important if it was on the monster!"

"Enough! You're lucky I don't suspend you for that," he pointed at the tag in the corner of the room "insult!"

"The only insult in here is you, _sir_!" Jeffory snapped, before he could stop himself.

"OUT OF MY SIGHT, YOU BRAT!" Larx roared, stalking around the desk and advancing on Jeffory menacingly. Jeffory found himself backing up, caught off-guard by Larx's loss of composure.

"So you can go make out with yourself in the mirror?" Jeffory snapped, mentally kicking himself for his lack of self-control.

Larx was upon him now, and Jeffory could have sworn he was raising his hand to strike. Jeffory found himself flinching, but when the blow never came, he opened his eyes to see Larx pointing at the door.

"GET! OUT!"

Jeffory obliged, all out of retorts, and more than a little shaken by the last couple moments of their "conversation". He fumbled with doorknob and stumbled through the door, taking off down the corridor.

Why had Larx thrown such a tantrum about that tag? Jeffory inwardly asked the same question over and over as he practically ran to the elevator, occasionally glancing over his shoulder.

Whatever the case was, he feared he would never find out the mysteries surrounding that tag. He wouldn't be surprised if Larx was going to destroy the tag, as soon as he was done making out with his reflection in one of his trophies.

"Damn..." he cursed, getting into the elevator. He _had_ to get that tag back. Something about it was very, very wrong. It had... frightened him. Or did it just unnerve him? Whatever it did to him, he knew, for a fact, that it was ten times worse for Larx.

**( A/N Please leave a review telling me what you thought and I'll see you all next week! Thanks for reading!)**

**LaDude out.**


	7. Chapter 7

**(A/N Well, 'ello! Bet last week's update weirded ya out a bit, huh? Oh, that Larx. Anyway, if you want to figure out just what the heck's goin' on, read on!)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Neopets. If you're expecting some clever comment here, well, there isn't one. Yeah.**

**Defenders of Neopia 2: Brotherhood chapter 7: The demon within.**

Jeffory burst into his dorm, pushing the door open so hard that it hit the wall. Hunter and Jack almost wet themselves. Jack, who had been eating a cold piece of pizza, began choking on it, while Hunter had dropped his large book on his foot. "What the heck happened to _you?"_ asked Hunter, as Jack continued hacking in the background.

Jeffory closed the door behind him, but not before checking the hallway for any followers one last time. Once that was done he moved to sit on his bed. "So, I was giving him my report." as he said this, Jack, still coughing, rolled off of his bed with a _thump_.

Once he was done, Jack had recovered and was sitting indian-style on his bed, listening intently. Jack's face lit up and he exclaimed, "Larx went nuts! Awesome!" Jeffory and Hunter gave him a blank look. Clearly, his obvious logic wasn't making sense to them, so he decided to spell it out. "If our Commander is crazy, we'll get a replacement!" he told them happily.

Jeffory and Hunter stared at him for one long moment, wondering how he was so off-the-mark. Then, Hunter spoke. "Jack, the _point_ is this: Larx threw away a valuable piece of information. This 'Project D.W.' could have something to do with Jeffory's, er, condition," he explained, shooting a hesitant look at Jeffory who shrugged in response.

"We're stealing it back," said Jeffory simply. Hunter chuckled. "That's funny, Jeff."

Silence.

"No! No! No way are we breaking school rules again!" Hunter said to them, shaking his head so hard, Jeffory wondered if he would get whiplash.

"C'mon! It's not like it belongs to him!" Jeffory pressed, well aware he sounded like a whiny teenager. Hey, we was allowed.

"Didn't you hear him on the Academy's radio station?"

Jack blinked. "We have a radio station?"

"_Yes_, smart one. He said, and I quote: 'Any items confiscated from students belongs to me from there on. No questions asked.'"

"Sorry," Jeffory said. "I stopped listening to BS 102." Hunter glared at him. "We already broke school rules, big time. We're lucky Mr. Demente covered for us!"

Mr. Demente, the science teacher, had helped them get into the Station the previous year. When they had all returned, he had told everyone that he had hand-picked them to help him with a big project in Southern Neopia. Considering Demente was, well, nuts, nobody exactly envied the "hand-picked" students.

"Last time was justified! We were, I dunno, saving the world!" Jack responded, defiant to the end. Hunter opened his mouth to respond, but Jeffory said, "We'll have to sneak into his office once Larx is away. Hunter, any ideas?"

Hunter didn't look at all pleased with the situation but nodded. "In a couple of days, Larx is going to that Commander's Conference in Shenkuu. He'll be gone for awhile, and _if_ he hasn't done away with that tag completely, we should be able to get it back," Hunter explained. He sounded like he was in pain with every word.

Jeffory nodded, satisfied. "Alright, sounds like a plan. Thanks, Hunt." Hunter responded with a grumble.

* * *

The trio had gone to bed, exhausted by the day's events.

While Hunter and Jack had drfited off into peacefull sleep, Jeffory tossed and turned, tormented by nightmares revolving around Kass and, of course, Project D.W.

Compared to the dream he had that night, the nightmares about Kass seemed mild.

Jeffory let out an exasperated sigh. He stood in the Void once again. He was growing tired of these dreams. Sooner or later, he was going to be attacked by the monster, so he readied himself.

For a few agonizingly long moments, nothing happened.

As soon as Jeffory began to believe he wasn't going to be attacked tonight, he was slammed into from behind. Rolling across the ground, Jeffory ended up laying on his back, the monster pinning him. "Ugh!" he groaned, trying in vain to shake the thing off. He could have sworn the monster was laughing at him as he struggled. It seemed like ages that he writhed around with the monster's cold, foul-smelling breath on his face. After amusing itself some more, the monster reared back its arm. Jeffory squeezed his eyes shut as the blow connected with his face, causing him to bang his head on the ground, knocking the wind out of him.

The creature climbed off of him, picking him up around the throat with its muscular arm. Jeffory wheezed as his breath was caught in his throat, causing him to grow dizzy, his eyes losing focus. It continued the squeeze him until he was on his last breath. When this happened, the monster's lips curled upwards to reveal a sinister, toothy grin before he threw Jeffory across the Void. Jeffory almost felt like he was flying.

Until he slammed into an invisible wall.

He crumpled to the ground, moaning. After a few moments, Jeffory opened his eyes to see the his assailant advancing on him. Desperate, he scrambled to his feet. Closing in fast, the monster dropped to all fours, gaining even more speed.

Jeffory didn't know how he was going to get out of this one. Normally, the dreams ended by now, and he would wake up, gasping for breath. But this one felt different. And that made Jeffory _very_ nervous.

As the creature leapt, claws extended, Jeffory's instincts took over.

Jeffory did a backflip, bringing his feet to the monster's face right before it sunk its claws into him. It howled and sailed backwards, its neck making a sickening crunch. It landed in an heap, unmoving. But Jeffory knew it wouldn't be so easy.

It was _never_ easy.

Its legs twitched. After a moment, it used only its legs to stand up, its torso still hanging limply behind it. After righting itself, Jeffory almost threw up. Its head was turned around completely.

The monsters shoulders began to shake. It was laughing. It was _enjoying_ this. With a low growl, it turned its head completely around to face Jeffory, its fangs seemed blinding in such a dark place. Jeffory stepped backwards.

He felt like he was a horror movie.

The Nightmare let out a roar that shook Jeffory to his core and charged.

Jeffory sidestepped it as it charged past him, and jumped onto its back. It was like riding a mechanical Kau; the Nightmare reered onto its back legs, spun in wild circles and even bucked in a desperate bid to shake off its attacker. Jeffory couldn't help but grin: He was getting the hang of this. As if sensing his thoughts, the Nightmare tried a new tactic. It threw itself onto its back, crushing its attacker under its weight.

"Oww..." Jeffory moaned. He saw stars and his vision was blurry. Once his sight returned, he was staring into the cold, black eyes of the monster. It had pinned him yet again. However, the wicked smile was gone, replaced by a look of pure contempt for the its prey.

It was done playing.

It reached for Jeffory's throat, eager to end its prey's miserable life. But Jeffory had other ideas. Jeffory aimed a punch at the Nightmare's jaw, but it used one arm to catch his fist, squeezing it. Jeffory winced, but caught the Nightmare's wrist as it used its free hand to attempt to strangle the kyrii. The monster proved to be _much_ stronger than Jeffory, however. While Jeffory's resistance managed to slow it down, its hand was almost at his throat.

As The Nightmare's black claws grazed his neck, a faint light appeared in-between the two. The Nightmare hissed, loosening its grip slightly on Jeffory's aching fist.

He heard a voice-a familar one-in the back of his mind. **"...ry!"** it said.

_What?_ Jeffory asked in his mind. The voice spoke again, this time it was more clear. **"That's right, Jeffory. Fight back!"**

It was so familiar, and just hearing it made Jeffory feel stronger-not so alone. "_**Be strong, my boy! Do not let this foul creature overpower you!" **_ the voice encouraged. As it said this, the light grew brighter, causing Jeffory to wince. The Nightmare roared, letting go of Jeffory entirely and covering its face. It was... fading?

Shaking of his stupor, Jeffory reared back his fist and rammed it into the Nightmare's throat. It roared, tumbling off of Jeffory. Jeffory crawled backwards, putting as much space between himself and the thing. As he got to its feet, so did the Nightmare. But it didn't charge him. Instead, it covered its face, the light only growing brighter. Black smoke began to rise from its body, and Jeffory could almost swore he heard whispering coming from it.

The Nightmare writhed, clutching its fading form. With one last howl of rage, it threw its head back and faded completely. As this happened, the light filled the entire room. It was so bright, that like the Nightmare, Jeffory had to cover his eyes.

"Luneth!"

* * *

Jeffory opened his eyes and found himself in a very familiar space. Star charts were scattered on the floor, different books about on astronomy were in odd places, and there seemed to one too many telescopes about.

He realized he was sitting on a soft bed, and couldn't help but smile.

"Luneth, where are you?" he asked, not exactly in a hurry to get up. The little floating... thing flew into the room, looking quite pleased. "Ahh, Jeffory!" he chimed, clapping his little hands, the half-moon on the top of his hat bobbing back and forth. "I am very proud, dear boy!" he congratulated, grabbing one of Jeffory's hands in his own much smaller ones and shaking it happily. "You fought off your inner demons! Something many cannot do!"

"Uhh..." was all Jeffory could say. Having a floating thing congratulate you on facing demons would do that to you, too.

"Now, now, I know you're probabaly a little unsettled by your recent experience, but you must listen to what I have to say," Luneth said to him, letting go of the kyrii's hand and putting on a serious face. "Wait, aren't you going to bring Jack, Hunter and Kendra, like last time?" asked Jeffory, holding up his hand to stop Luneth's explanation. Luneth shook his head, causing the half-moon to bobble once again. "No," he said. "This is information for your ears only." He paused. "For now, at least."

"Okay... What can you tell me about that thing?" Jeffory asked, steeling himself for whatever he was about to learn.

Luneth sighed, stroking his starry robe. "What you are experiencing is possesion. The creature inside of you is a result of your negative emotions. See, the creature formed because you came into contact with a dark magic-evil magic."

Jeffory stared at him. "When did I ever..." he trailed off when Luneth gave him a meaningful look. "Back when I fought Kass for the time." He remembered it all too well. When that dark energy surged through him, blocking out everything. Luneth nodded, looking grave.

"The monster is born as simply a seed within you. However, the darkness within you-a darkness that is within every being- causes it to grow. It feeds off of anger, hate, fear... When it finally grows strong enough to combat its "vessel" it will do so tirelessly, by attacking them within a place called 'The Void'. You are quite familiar with this place, hmm?"

Jeffory's stomach dropped.

"If said vessel is killed within the void, their real body is taken over by the monster, never again will the vessel be seen," Luneth said somberly, causing Jeffory to gulp. "But hope is not lost. You defeated the demon with your will to stay in control-your will to protect what is dear to you; your compassion for others. The demon _loathes_ compassion, it is its worst enemy. Compassion is the the positive to the demon's negative!" Luneth explained, that proud tone had returned again.

"So, are you saying it's gone...?" asked Jeffory hopefully. To his dismay, Luneth shook his round head. "No, but it is weakened. Your positive emotions right now are keeping it at bay. It will be back, mark my words. Eventually, there should be a way to stop it completely."

Jeffory stayed silent for a moment. "How did you help me?"

"You see, I have been there in the back of your mind since our last meeting, I've been trying to get in contact with you, but until now, it has been impossible. Too much on that young mind of yours, dear boy," he said with a little chuckle. Before Jeffory could respond, Luneth's form flickered.

"I'm afraid I do not have much time left, Jeffory. I am quite tired..." Luneth sighed, his eyelids drooping. "Wait! Is there any way to get rid of the demon for good? Exorcism or something?!" he asked, desperately. "No, the demon isn't a supernatural entity exactly, like those in movies or stories, but a part of you..." Luneth told him, with yet another sigh. "It _is _you. Well, more like the embodiment of your negativity. I do not mean to be insulting, but you can be quite the pessimist, hmm?" Luneth said in a slightly scathing tone, causing Jeffory to send him a glare.

"Excuse me for not being an optimist..." Jeffory grumbled.

"Hah hah hah! Perhaps I am too blunt. It's been quite awhile since I last spoke to anyone." As Luneth said this, his form flickered once again, and so did the room. "I'm afraid I don't have much time to answer _all_ of your questions, but I have time for one more. As you mortals say, 'shoot!'" Luneth said.

Unsure of exactly he should ask, he went with one that had been on his mind for a long, long time.

"How did Kendra awake from the Magician's Coma? It's not something easy to wake up from, right?" asked Jeffory quickly, glancing at his hand; he was beginning to fade as well. "Ah, that!" Luneth said in a "ah-ha!" tone. "Yes, that was my doing. I was able to transfer some of my mana to her, repairing her damaged mana and purifying it. That sort of coma is related to lack of mana, you see. Unfortunately, transferring my mana has taken quite a toll on me, which is why I am not able to keep a connection for very -ng."

Luneth's form had become fuzzy. "-es! I'm afraid our -versation must be cut short!" he exclaimed, shaking his little head. "Jeffory! I fear I will not be able to speak with you for quite awhile! Take good care of yourself, and don't give into the monster within!" he shouted as he too began to fade away.

As the room flickered out of existence, Luneth was able to shout one last encouragement. "I have faith in you, my boy!"

And with that, Jeffory was, for once, able to sleep in peace.

**(A/N That's right! It's Luneth! Bet you thought I did away with him. Well, nope! Alrighty, thanks for reading, and leave me a review! See you all next week!)**

**LaDude out.**


	8. Chapter 8

**(A/N Well, 'ello, my ragamuffins! (I don't know what that means, just heard it somewhere) In case I insulted any of you, I can make it up to you with this new chapter! Read on, my friends!)**

**Disclaimer: It's not mine. Neopets, I mean. Like, nothing's changed in the last week; I still don't own it. Yep.**

**Defenders of Neopia 2: Brotherhood chapter 8: No hard feelings.**

After Jeffory's meeting with Luneth, life was certainly easier for him. He no longer was forced to listen to the wretched voice taunt him day in and day out, he didn't have to control his temper to the point that he felt like a hippie, and best of all, he could sleep in peace, without fear of the Void. Yes, the last four days had been some of the best days in Jeffory's recent memory.

On top of his usual studies, Jeffory had to train _very_ hard. A week from now, teams in their second year at the Academy were participating in an exam. Every team that was qualified would face each-other in a sparring match. Three commanders from three different Academies were going to be there to judge each teams performance. Every team that did well enough would be allowed to join more advanced classes, giving them access to better missions. Naturally, the students were excited: doing well in this exam would get them one step closer to being true Defenders.

Among other things, Jeffory had generally been a lot happier. His friends had been caught off-guard by his new-found positivity. He hadn't told them about his dream with Luneth, and decided he would keep it that way for now.

Jeffory rolled out of bed the next morning. Today would consist of the usual training regimen: Breakfast, training, lunch, training, dinner, sleep.

Well, that's what was _supposed_ to happen.

"You're _not_ serious!" were the first words out of Jeffory's mouth that fine morning. "Why would I lie about this?" Hunter responded, looking offended. Jack, who had been lying face-down on his bed said, "Because you wanted to get back at us for putting a mootix in your soda yesterday." Hunter opened his mouth to respond but froze. He looked at Jack and said, "What, wait?!"

Jack blanched. "So, the exam..." Hunter shook his head. "Look, it sucks, but there's nothing we can do. Larx is commander; what he says goes." Jeffory could only sigh. Just because Larx was commander, it didn't mean he could just do whatever he wanted! Well, it did, but that was besides the point.

* * *

After cleaning up, the trio went down to breakfast. On their way down, they passed by Scott, Tom and Josh, the latter was being dragged along by his hood by Tom who looked less than amused. "Ow, ow, ow, OW!" Josh cried as he kicked his legs violently, trying in vain to escape the older teen's iron grip. Jeffory rolled his eyes, as he moved next to Scott, who looked more than a little embarassed to be in the same vicinity as them. "What's up with _these_ two?" asked Jeffory, curiosity getting the best of him.

Scott groaned. "Oh, Josh dumped a cup of water on Tom's head while he was sleeping. Tom's taking Josh to the bathroom for a swirly, now," he explained, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Jack, who had sidestepped the two teens, arched a brow. "Uh, shouldn't you be, I dunno, stopping him?" he asked in confusion. Scott shook his head. "Nah. See, if I got in Tom's way now, I would be in his other arm headin' to the same place," he explained. After a pause, they all nodded, accepting his logic.

As they rounded a corner, Tom dragged Josh in the other direction from them. They could now see Josh's face as he waved pitifully at them, ceasing his futile efforts. The party just shook their heads and waved back. After this little detour, they all climbed into the elevator, making idle conversation. And yes, the hoagie VS. sub debate came up, yet again.

When they exited the elevator, Jeffory had his ears plugged. Even Scott had joined the discussion, making Jeffory wonder what he had done to deserve being stuck in a small elevator with these three. Jeffory surmised that he had done something in his past life to deserve this. Yeah, that must have been it. As they walked into the cafetieria, they dodged the throngs of students in a hurry to get their breakfast and start their training.

As they piled into the cafetieria, they met up with Kendra who looked exhausted. "Kendy, what happened to _you?_" asked Hunter, concerned. She sighed. "I was up last night working on my magic..." she said softly, trying not to draw attention.

After she awoke from the coma, she had begun trying to use more spells. Given the fact that her horn was broken, the most she could use was a weak fire spell. She was guilty for falling into a coma and causing her team to go on their mission to the Station alone. She claimed she was "Going to make herself useful". Jeffory thought it was bull. She was more than useful already and he didn't believe she had to feel guilty at all.

They eventually got their breakfast and (with much difficulty) made their way to an empty table. Jack almost immeadiately began stuffing his face with his pancakes, causing Kendra, who was sitting next to him, to make a sound of disapproval. To Jeffory's surprise, Jack acknowleged this and ate at a much slower pace. Hunter and Jeffory looked at each other, both thinking the same thing. Jack was so whipped! Jeffory grinned at Jack in an evil way, which caused the oblivious mynci to tilt his head to the side, much like a confused puppy.

Scott sat down in the remaining empty chair, next to Hunter. He had a plate of waffles, piled high enough to rival even _Jack's_ plate of food. Almost as soon as he had sit down, Kendra asked, "Where's Tom?" This got her a weird look from most of the group and an irratated look from a certain mynci. "...and Josh?" Kendra added, trying to make her question seem not as strange. It was a nice try, at least.

"Tom is currently in the bathroom with Josh," Scott said simply, not realizing how weird that had sounded. He just got blank looks from everyone at the table; even Jack had stopped shoveling food into his mouth to stare at him.

"I _mean_ he's giving Josh a swirly for dumping water on his head when he was sleeping," Scott corrected his earlier statment. Kendra still looked a little disappointed that Tom wouldn't be joining them for breakfast while Jack, on the other hand, looked quite pleased.

The team spent the next couple of hours training with each other. Sometimes, they would spar with the other students and other times, they would practice alone, simply working on their technique. By the time they were done, it was already past noon. The exam was at 3:00pm, meaning they had enough time to go clean up and rest before it was time to assemble in the conference room for their briefing by none-other than Commander Jerk-face himself.

Jack, for the fiftieth time, voiced his opinion on the exam as he, Jeffory, Hunter and Kendra made their way to the conference room. "I mean, Larx coulda told us at the beginning of the week that we had some field exam to do!" he complained. Jeffory couldn't help but agree, it was very sudden. Kendra, on the other hand, thought differently. "Jack, our training as future Defenders is very important; being prepared for the unexpected is part of the job," she stated, getting a whine from Jack. Hunter nodded. "Yeah, I bet this was to weed out all the trainees who weren't cut out for this job." Jeffory nodded at him. At another whine from the mynci, Kendra continued. "Well, I agree Larx can be a bit of an..." she trailed off, trying to find the correct word. Jeffory jumped in. "Ass?" he suggested, getting snickers from Jack and Hunter. Kendra wasn't as amused.

"No, smartass," she replied, catching them all off-guard. Kendra wasn't much for cursing, but sometimes, Jeffory and his partners-in-crime deserved such nicknames. "I was going to say extremist. But he is doing his job correctly at the moment," she explained. Jeffory simply huffed. He wasn't willing to compliment the Commander, or side with those who would.

"So, we _are_ fighting as a team, right?" Jack asked. The entire group face-palmed. "Dude, you are _so_ hopeless!" Jeffory groaned. "What?!" Jack asked, oblivious. "I _just_ told you what we were going to be doing, _WHILE _ we training! Why did we just work on our _TEAMWORK?!"_ Hunter questioned, completely baffled by Jack's lack of listening skills.

"Sorry! I wasn't paying attention!" he defended himself, holding up his hands. Hunter sighed. "As usual!" he muttered under his breath. Jeffory rolled his eyes. "You guys are wasting our time by arguing like this!" Kendra complained. Jeffory nodded. "She's right. Keep it up!" Jeffory encouraged. Kendra's head to snapped over to look at him. "Wha-?" she exclaimed. "If we're lucky, we may miss Larx's speech!" Jeffory said, quite happily. Kendra sighed. "You are all so immature..." she sighed.

To Jeffory's displeasure, they got there before Larx had even arrived. He would've hoped to miss at least the first hour of it... "Dang, this is packed!" Jack said, surprised. The conference room was extremely crowded. Almosy every student in their second year and higher was here. The room itself was fairly large, but unfortunately, there was an even larger amount of students to fill it up. "Kendra, you're smart; where do we si- Kendra?" Jeffory was going to ask his telekinetic friend where she thought they could sit (he was too irritable to worry about doing it himself) but she had wandered off.

"What the-?" Jack asked, only to let out a low growl when he saw her making her way through the crowded room to Tom, who was sulking in a corner. Jeffory could only sigh when he saw Jack's face turning red with anger before he childishly huffed and looked away from the two. Hunter nudged Jeffory's leg, causing Jeffory to look down at him. "Hmm?" he asked, having to raise his voice over the chatter. "What are we gonna do about _that_?" he asked, gesturing over to Kendra and Tom who appeared to be-surprise!-flirting with each other. Jeffory looked back at Hunter, wondering what he was getting at. "What if we have to fight Scott's team in the exam? How do we know Kendra's not going to be conflicted about fighting her 'boyfriend'?" Hunter asked. Jeffory let out a long sigh. "It's not like we're going to be fighting to the-dude, watch it!- death anyway," Jeffory said, pausing only to snap at a rather rude Meerca who bumped into him.

Hunter nodded. "Yeah, but still..." the kougra sounded very worried. Jeffory couldn't help but feel it too. These exams were going to be tough, and not just becuase they may have to fight some of their friends; Larx would be rating them. This meant that the team would have to have a _very_ good performance in able to not be disqualified.

Jeffory, Hunter and Jack (who was dragged along by the back of his collar), made their way through the large crowds, finding a nice corner to settle in while they awaited their commander. Hunter exhaled loudly, enjoying the less crowded-feeling air. "We can finally like, breath!" Jeffory exclaimed; he had never enjoyed tight spaces very much. Hunter rolled his eyes. "You can talk goodly..." he mocked, earning him a whack on the head. Jack was still abnormally quiet.

Jeffory decided not to get involved with it at the moment; Jack needed to think about whether or not Kendra was important enough to him to tell her how he felt before Tom took her away from him.

Suddenly, the door burst open and in came Larx, looking harsh as ever. His usual sneer was on his face, and his arms were crossed, almost as if he was uninterested in doing this sort of thing. The room grew silent as he looked over his students.

"Greetings," he said, spreading his arms wide. Well, as wide as a chia's arms could go. "as many of you know, I am Commander Larx. You may adress me as 'Sir' or 'Commander', understood?" he informed them all. "You have all been called here today beacuase of the Exam," he explained, placing his stubby little arms at his sides again. "in this exam, each team here will judged on their performance against another, randomly selected team. I, myself, will be judging you. If I like what I see, you will all move up to the next class".

He decided to pause for dramatic effect. Jeffory was pretty sure a punch in the face would be dramatic enough.

"This means you will be given more advanced missions, bringing you teams closer to becoming true Defenders of Neopia in the future."

With that, Larx finally ceased to drone on. Jeffory had to force himself from cheering. Next to him, Jack was glaring over at Tom and Kendra. It was obvious who he was hoping to face off against. Jeffory, however, didn't think facing Tom was a good idea; he was a fierce fighter with strentgh and skill. And not to mention a little older than Jeffory's team.

Larx opened his mouth, yet again. "Without further ado, please turn your attention to the monitor in the center of the room..." Larx told them all curtly.

A monitor came down from the ceiling, blinking to life. On it, there were all of the team's leaders faces. The screen began shuffeling them around. After several seconds, the screen stopped shuffeling. Now, the opponents had been set. On the left side of the screen, Jeffory saw his face along with several others, some of which he was acquainted with. On the right side was the rest of the teams. He immeadiately saw Scott's face on the other. He gulped when he saw an arrow extending from his face to Jeffory's.

At least Jack would be happy.

**(A/N Please leave a review, and I will see you all next week.)**

**LaDude out.**


	9. Chapter 9

**(A/N Well, sorry I'm a little late to updating this; I was simply too busy this weekend to get on my computer. Anyway, read on!)**

**Disclaimer: 'Tis not mine. Neopets 'tis not. 'Tis-why the hell am I talking like this. I don't even-**

**Defenders of Neopia 2: Brotherhood chapter 9: The Exam.**

Jeffory blinked. Then he blinked again. And again. Well aware he looked like rather strange, his mind was racing. He was supposed to face Tom. Tom, the powerful warrior with a freakin' katana?! There was no way... He shook his head. The odds had been stacked against him more than once in the past. He had defeated Kass, who was ten times stronger than Tom would ever be. And this time, he didn't just have Jack and Hunter for support. No, they had Kendra to help them out!

A cruel part of Jeffory's mind considered revealing revealing Kendra as a Mage. Perhaps they could cause their opponents to believe she could petrify them, or something. Then he mentally kicked himself, disgusted by his own thoughts. That too cruel. Kendra would be heart-broken if she knew her team-her friends-even considered using her in such a way.

_Stupid, stupid, stupid! _Jeffory berated himself in his mind. He looked around his surroundings, trying to get his mind off of the upcoming fight.

They were currently in the Student Lounge as they waited for the seperate teams to be called into the arena. The Academy's massive structure housed an arena on the bottom floor made specifically for this kind of situation. Jeffory chuckled to himself; even though this was practically his home, there was still so much he didn't know about it.

Kendra sat down next to him. "So..." she started slowly, not making eye contact. Jeffory arched a brow. "You okay?" he asked the absent-minded flotsam. "I have to fight Thomas-I mean, Tom?" she asked. Jeffory held back an exasperated sigh. Part of him wished she wasn't so worried about the arrogant techo, but the other could sort of understand how she felt. If he had to fight a friend of his, or someone who was possibly more than that, he didn't know how he would feel.

"I guess so. I swear, friggin' Larx must've rigged that thing," he responded, eyes narrowed. For one of the first times that Jeffory could remember, Kendra didn't call him out on insulting the Commander. "I agree. He's pretty good at making things worse, right?" she smirked, getting a chuckle from Jeffory. Her smile disappeared as quickly as it had come, though. Jeffory placed his hand on her shoulder, giving it a light squeeze. "Hey, this fight isn't to the death, y'know?" he reminded her, hoping to ease her mind.

She nodded hesitantly. "I know, but still..." she trailed off, glancing over at Scott and his group as they absently wandered into the lounge. Kendra never really did like fighting. Jeffory wondered if she _really_ was prepared to be a Defender. Last year, she had told them that she joined this Academy to prove to her parents that she could take care of herself. Was that a good enough reason?

Then again, he wasn't one to talk.

"Anyway," Jeffory said, trying to eliminate the awkward silence. "just think of this as a friendly competition, all right?" Jeffory reassured her, looking her in the eye. She smiled before nodding. "Thanks, Jeff," she smiled. He nodded. "No problem. Do me a favor? Go check on Jack and Hunter, they're bein' too quiet," he said, glancing over at his friends who were indeed being rather quiet, talking in hushed tones. She chuckled and went over to them.

When she had gone, Jeffory stood up and walked over to Scott. Said scorchio gave him a cheesy grin as he walked over. It was obvious: they were both nervous about fighting the other's teams. "Hey, Jeff," Scott greeted awkwardy. "Hey..." Jeffory responded, sensing his friend's discomfort.

They both stood, shuffling their feet around and their eyes fixated on the ground. Finally, Jeffory broke the silence. "So, no hard feelings whoever wins or loses, right?" he asked nervously. Scott nodded, grinning. "Yeah. No hard feelings." In a matter of seconds, the tension surrounding the two seemed to dissipate and Jeffory released a breath he didn't know he was holding in.

Suddenly, Scott glanced around the room, as though he felt someone was watching him. Jeffory arched a brow. As he opened his mouth to ask him what his problem was, Scott held up a hand, effectively silencing him. "Seriously, Jeff, be careful around Tom. He gets sorta... weird when he's in a battle. I don't think he knows the meaning of a 'friendly competition," Scott whispered. "_especially_ if it means he'll get to fight Jack." Before Jeffory could respond to him, Josh, who until then had been pretty quiet, caught his attention.

The shoyru was trying "I'm not touching you" with Tom. Emphasis on the "trying". The techo grabbed Josh's finger mid-almost-poke, and squeezed it hard.

Have you ever heard a chicken scream? Jeffory was sure the sound Josh made in response was something like that.

"Oi!" Scott shouted, jogging over to the two. "Don't break him yet, we need him for the match!" he pleaded, forgetting about his conversation with Jeffory completely.

Jeffory watched as Scott desperatly tried to pry Tom away from Josh who was screaming to high heaven, and wondered: how could THIS team have him so worried?

He slapped the sides of his face; he had to get it together, for his team, if nothing else. He sighed and walked over to his friends. Jack had just finished his theory on-you guessed it- the sub vs. hoagie debacle that had somehow come up in the conversation. "Still?" Jeffory asked in exsperation, sitting down next to Hunter, who was glaring at the mycni. Obviously, his thoughts on the matter had been shut down by Jack, who was grinning widely.

No wonder they were being so quiet before: That stuff is serious business.

"Still," Kendra responded with a roll of her eyes. Jeffory could only shake his head; come to think of it, why would anyone take _his_ team seriously? They continued sitting in comfortable silence, preparing theselves for the match. They were on next, and they had to do their best to get a good standing.

They couldn't just fight to win out there. No, they had to look good as they did so. Style and finesse wre important to their scores. Jeffory thought it was impractical, to be perfectly honest. He doubted that if they were in a real, life-threatening battle, looking good was important.

Larx's drawling voice crashed his train of thought as it came over the loud speaker. "Attention, students!" the chattering in the room immediately died down at this. "The Exam will begin in exactly ten minutes! The two teams facing each other first must enter the elevator and take it to B3," he ordered. Jeffory glanced over at his friends, and they nodded before standing up and joining him.

Scott stopped arguing with his team when the announcement began and he managed to drag them both over to the elevator before Tom and Josh lunged at eachother's throats.

They piled into the elevator, and Jeffory was thankful he wasn't claustrophobic.

"Ow!" Jack yelled. "You're on my foot!" he whined at the unseen foot-stepper. "Shut up, Jack..." Hunter groaned, as someone was on his poor tail. "Someone's on everybody, so deal with it," Tom said cooly, even though it was him standing on Jack's foot. "Speak for yourself..." Josh whined; his wing was being pressed against the side of the elevator.

Jeffory managed to squeeze through the group to get to the elevator panel. As soon as he saw "B3" he pressed it and the elevator doors closed.

The ride down was not Jeffory's idea of fun. Jack and Tom kept giving eachother death glares, Kendra was eyeing Tom with a somewhat dreamy look, Hunter was spouting facts about the Academy's history like a water fountain of boredom, and Josh and Scott drowned everyone else out with their complaints about their personal space.

After what felt like forever, the elevator stopped descending, and the doors opened with a "ding!". They all stumbled out of the elevator and they were in a very large, circular room. The ceiling was high in the room, making the room not feel as confined as Jeffory thought it would be. The room wasn't lit by lights, but rather many, and I mean _many_ candles and torches. Surrounding them were stands filled with onlookers. The audience consisted of younger students who didn't qualify for The Exam yet, but were here most likely for preperation for next year. Among them were most of their teachers.

Before Jeffory could examine the room further, Jack gained his attention by declaring "ELBOW ROOM!" while spreading his arms wide, barely missing Jeffory's face. He fell silent, remaining in his comical position when he noticed the many stares as chuckles he was receiving from the audience he hadn't known was there.

Jack chuckled nervously and waved at them, not noticing Tom's glare that was fixed on his back. "And now they think I'm associated with this idiot..." he grumbled. Hunter narrowed his eyes, and opened his mouth to tell him off.

Larx's voice cut Hunter off as he began prowling over towards Tom, who wasn't even paying attention to the advancing kougra.

"Welcome all, to The Exam!" he called among the cheers that filled the large room. "Today we see who has the makings of becoming a true Defender!" he continued, as the cheers growing even louder. Jeffory stiffened slightly, feeling a wave of... something flow through his body but he had no clue what caused it... His eyes warily scanned the crowd but he saw no one suspiscious... Wait!

He saw a blue kyrii in the stands but it was gone as soon as he saw it. Was it just his imagination? Was the stress finally getting to him? Was he just overworked? It couldn't have been: The chills that rushed down his spine were too real to be a simple trick of the mind. Jack tapped him on the shoulder, calming his rushing mind.

"...alling, Jeffory!" the mnci's cheerful voice filled his ears, making him jump slightly. "Oh."

"What's up? Pre-fight jitters?" he asked. Jeffory suddenly felt deja-vu. Jack had said something similar before their confrontation with Kass last year. Jeffory chuckled. "Something like that," he responded quietly, glancing quickly at the stands, and seeing nothing out of usual. Except for Mr. Demente poking a student in the face, that is.

Some things never change.

Jeffory looked back to Jack and forced a grin, trying to push down the sinking feeling in his gut. "Let's bring down the house, buddy," he said. Jack grinned, patting his miniature gun in his pocket. "That's what I'm talkin' 'bout!"

Please enter the center of the arena!" Larx ordered over the loud speaker. Jeffory led his group to the aforementioned destination while Scott led his group. Jeffory caught sight of the judge's corner where Larx, a skeith and a very familiar face sat.

"It's Rich!" Hunter gasped, looking at Jeffory and Jack in surprise.

The draik looked much more laid-back then when they last saw him, wearing a T-shirt with the Altador's logo on it and blue jeans. He noticed them gawking and waved at them, smiling. Jeffory and the other two waved back, dumbfounded. He wondered what the draik was doing here. Kendra looked very confused as she watched her friends reactions.

"Who's he?" she whispered in Jack's ear. The mycni gulped at feeling her breath on his skin but he composed himself. "He helped us get to Meridell last year," he told her hastily. When she nodded and moved away, he began taking rapid breaths to get his brain working correctly again (well, as correct as Jack's brain is capable of).

Larx called their attention back to him when he cleared his throat.

"In this battle, you are _not_ fighting to the death. This is merely a sparring match, not to be taken as any less or any more, understood?" he told them all strictly. Jeffory's team as well as Scott's responded with a simultaneous "Yes sir! Larx nodded, satisfied. "Also," he added, looking each and every one of them over, stopping for a longer amount of time on Tom. "Your performance in this battle will determine your overall score, which determines your future as Defenders. While winning this battle is important, it will mean nothing if you do it sloppily," when he said this, he looked at Jeffory with a glare.

Jeffory guessed that flipping him off would count as an immediate disqualification.

"Lastly, if a member of either team is wounded severely they _will_ surrender, or they will be forcibly removed to recieve medical attention, understood?" when he said this he gave Jeffory another pointed look.

Jeffory refused to let this jerk get to him; he was the team's leader, and it was his responsibility to keep a cool head, even if someone was ticking him off. Larx almost looked disappointed that he wasn't able to provoke the kyrii, but quickly recovered.

"Teams, move to your corners," he commanded. Jeffory and his group took up residence of the area surrounding the elevator while Scott's team occupied the adjacent side of the field.

"Now then, when I give the word, the battle will commence," he told them, giving Tom another look. "draw your weapons..." The two teams both got into battle stances. "FIGHT!" Larx commanded.

Like animals, the two teams met in the center of the arena, and the cheering was over-powered by the sounds of battle

**(A/N I hope you guys are looking forward to a fight! Unfortunately, you guys are going to have to wait until nex week to see who wins. Until then, I bid you all farewell! Have a nice week, everybody, and please review!)**

**LaDude out.**


	10. Chapter 10

**(A/N 'Allo, mates! Jolly good to see you all, this lovely evening/morning/afternoon! I must say, I am quite pleased by this chapter and I hope you enjoy reading it, chap! On that cheery note, I do declare I am late on this update, and I'm sorry. My weekend was bang-up busy, so I couldn't find the time.)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Neopets.**

**Defenders of Neopia 2: Brotherhood chapter 10: The plot thickens.**

Jeffory had gone straight for Tom, locking blades with the older male. Tom looked as if he couldn't comprehend that this little nobody would actually attack him, but shook it off, his usual smug look returning. With a cry, he broke their swords' connection and dropped to the ground, sweeping his legs out from under him.

"Oof!" Jeffory yelped as he face-planted on the ground. Tom raised his sword, preparing to strike, but Jeffory rolled out of the way. Tom growled in frustration as his sword sank into the dirt, while Jeffory scrambled to his feet. Jeffory swung at him, but Tom took one hand off of his sword and _caught_ the blade, wrenching it from the kyrii's hands.

Jeffory's eyes widened to the size of saucers, and the gasps from the spectators told him he wasn't the only one that was taken aback. Tom took advantage of Jeffory's shock and kicked him the gut, sending him flying backwards.

Meanwhile, Jack was shooting at Scott, who was soaring over the group, shooting down fireballs at his opponents. "Hold still, so I can hit you!" the Mycni groaned as yet another bullet missed its target. Scott chuckled. "Sorry, buddy! But I wanna win this one!" he responded, with a grin.

Jack returned the grin. "Keep dreaming!" he shot back, letting loose another slew of bullets. Scott dodged most of them with ease, but his grin lessened when one grazed his wing. He hissed in pain, but took a deep breath and belched out a stream of fire.

"Aw, sh-!" Jack yelped as he dove to the side.

Hunter had joined the fight with Tom, covering the still downed Jeffory. Tom swiped at him, but Hunter ducked under it, clawing at his leg. Tom winced but continued fighting, aiming a kick at Hunter. The kougra took it straight to the face, and he was knocked to the ground. Tom raised his sword over his head, only to be kicked in the ribs by Jeffory, who had crept up on him.

"Gah!" he cried out, falling to the ground. Jeffory helped Hunter to his feet, but kept an eye on his opponent. "You okay?" he glanced at Hunter, who nodded. "Well, my jaw feels as heavy as Altadorian ore, but I'll be fine." Jeffory smirked at his friend, then ran at Tom who had gotten to his feet, continuing the battle.

Kendra was facing off against Ryan. He, unlike Scott, who preferred to fly above the battlefield, stayed on the ground. He used the sharp tips of his wings to slice at her, a tactic she thought was unorthodox. A part of her wondered why he wasn't going all-out like his teammates.

"What are you doing?" Kendra questioned, jabbing at him with her jagged horn. He met it with his wing-tip, knocking her back and giving her one hell of a headache.

"I don't hit girls, y'know?" he responded simply. _Admirable..._ Kendra thought, holding her aching cranium. She yelped in pain when he brought a swift kick to her mid-section. "But I didn't say anything about kicking!" he responded with a sly grin. She smiled. _Now it may actually be a fair fight_ she thought, confidently.

Jack was still trying to get a shot on his opponent, but to no avail. To his left, he saw Jeffory and Hunter struggling to stand their ground against Tom, who was growing more and more aggressive, and Jack's frustration reached its peak. "Oh, COME! ON!" he snarled, letting out a slew of bullets once again. "Jack!" Jeffory shouted, ducking under a blow from his adversary, and kicking him in the gut.

"Concentr-!" he yelled, only to be cut off by a punch square to the jaw.

Jack thought he either said "Concentrate" or "constipate", but went with the former. He took a deep breath, and instead of firing where Scott was, he fired where he was _going_ to be.

Scott yelped as the bullet hit his already-wounded wing and he plummeted to the ground.

The crowd cheered as Scott landed with a thud. "All right, all right... I surrender..." he groaned, rolling over, and holding his wing. Jack helped him to his feet, putting the gun to his head in a hostage scenario. "Dude, I said 'I surrender'!" he sighed. Jack shushed him, poking his head with the gun. "I know; I just always wanted to get to do something like this!" he said with a goofy grin.

While this was happening, Jeffory got to his feet, taking advantage of Tom's momentary shock; he couldn't believe that Scott had gotten taken down by Jack. That rotten mycni, of all people! Jeffory swung his sword, causing blood to fly from Tom's side. Jeffory brought a fist into Tom's gut a moment later, and, in one fluid motion, turned his sword around and used the handle to whack Tom in the face. He tumbled backwards, but used his katana to stop his roll and leaped at Jeffory.

Jeffory also jumped at him, sword poised for the winning blow.

**BOOM!**

Jeffory and Tom were both blown backwards by a large blast of energy that exploded between them.

Jeffory rolled across the ground, landing face-down on the dirt. He looked up, wiping the dust off of his face and gasped; the area they had just been in had been completely... "Crystal...?" he uttered, dumbfounded.

There was no doubt; the area they had just been in had been turned to crystal completely! Several sharp spires had risen from the glimmering ground, and Jeffory was glad he wasn't there long enough to be impaled by them. He would take a face-full of dirt over a crystal through his gut.

The crowd had fallen completely silent; so silent in fact, that you could have heard a pin drop.

Then, it all went to hell.

Deafening booms sounded through the arena, as many areas were turned to crystal just like the middle of the arena. The onlookers screamed in terror as many of the spires that began springing from the ground missed them by several inches and within seconds, the entire room was in utter chaos.

Jeffory rolled to his side, getting to his feet and dodging a spire that sprung up right where he had been and he saw his teammates and opponents doing the same thing. "What the-?!" Jeffory choked out as he twisted his ankle in a failed attempt to avoid another spire. He spread his legs as another rose out of the ground, almost impaling his manhood.

When he got to his feet once again, he felt a wave of relief wash over him. Out of the corner he saw Kendra lowering her fin, finishing a curing spell. He nodded her his silent thanks, and groaned when another threat revealed itself; Now, there were crystalline knives materializing in midair and raining down on the room's occupants.

"In the name of all that's holy!" he growled, raising his sword and blocking several that almost impaled him. He saw Richard, the skeith, and several teachers evacuating the students but Larx was nowhere to be seen. Could he have gotten away through the elevator while everyone screamed and ran around?

"Damn coward..." Jeffory snarled, as the crystalline rain finally ceased.

As was the trend of today, however, yet another threat emerged.

Standing on a pillar that had risen in the arena was the same kyrii that Jeffory had seen earlier. He had light blue fur but his "hair" was a much darker shade, almost navy blue. It was styled in a very odd way; It was straight and his bangs parted to either side of his face, flaring out at the tips slightly. The hair on the top of his head was styled in so that it looked like a trident. He wore a black, sleeveless shirt that revealed toned, muscular arms, and black pants that had the bottom of them stuffed into grey combat boots. On his hands he wore a pair of brass knuckles that were red around the edges.

Among all of this, two things about stuck out to Jeffory about this mysterious intruder: number one being that he wore the same emblem that represented Kass on his right pant leg, and number two being that he had bright red eyes, with very small, almost demonic, black pupils. His lip curled upwards slightly when he saw Jeffory's eyes widen.

"You-" Jeffory was cut off by by the appearence of Jack who ran to his side. "You're the guy that saved me!" the mynci shouted, bewildered. "Back on Mt. Legend!" he continued, pointing an accusatory finger at the smirking intruder. The kyrii made an innocent "Who, me?" expression, but replaced it with a wicked grin not even a second later..

With grace like that of a dancer, he jumped off of his mount and landed silently on the crystalline ground. He crossed his arms, brass knuckles glinting from the light. "Well," he finally said in a wicked voice that made Jeffory's skin crawl. "you're smarter than you look, huh? I thought you were unconscious when I saved your sorry ass from the dragon," he said, giving Jack a look.

"You're the only person I've ever met that can do something like _this_!" Jack exclaimed, gesturing to the now-crystal ground. The intruder's grin became a complete smile and he popped his neck muscles as if preparing for a fight.

Hunter and Kendra came to Jeffory and Jack's side, prepared to fight if need be. "So, Trident," Hunter said, addressing the yrii. "why would you save one of our own if you were just going to try and kill him later?" the kougra asked, the question everyone was thinking.

"It was simply orders, nothing more..." Trident responded, barely higher than a whisper.

Jeffory heard him just fine. "From Kass?!" he demanded, sword poised to charge. Trident nodded. "Yeah, something like that." He made it clear that that was all he would say on the subject.

Jeffory absently noticed Scott's team joining his own, as if they knew they would need as much help as they could get. Trident's evil eyes flashed when he saw them. "You're all insects!" he snarled. Jack made the first move, running right at him. Trident barely batted a lash and side-stepped the mynci, who had gone in for a punch. Trident roundhouse kicked the mynci in the back of the head, knocking him out cold.

Before Jeffory knew it, Trident had disappeared from his sight. When Jeffory blinked, Trident had somehow taken out everybody around him. Within seconds, they had all flown across the room in different directions... It was like time had stopped, giving Trident the upper hand in the battle.

Trident appeared in front of Jeffory, smiling psychotically. As his grin grew wider, his eyes grew redder and his pupils shrank. _What is he?!_ Jeffory asked in his mind, feeling chills run down his spine. It felt as if cold, slimy hands were being dragged along him. Trident raised his fist, preparing for a punch, but Jeffory was ready.

He raised Arrow of Life at the instant Trident punched at him, blocking it. What he wasn't ready for, however, was the surge that coursed through his body.

It was just like when he met the Nightmare in the Void. The powerful dark energy that radiated from Trident, strangling Jeffory's very spirit. Trident seemed to feel Jeffory's terror as his grin grew even wider. It was so wide, Jeffory couldn't help but think it would go around his head once or twice. "Too... _slow..._" Trident hissed, before letting out a feral roar. Purple mist surrounded him, just like with Kass, and sent Jeffory soaring across the arena, right into the wall. His sword fell to the ground with a "clang".

"Ugh!" Jeffory groaned, sliding down the wall and landing in a heap. As his cloudy vision returned to normal, he looked up to see Trident looming over him.

"Seriously?" he asked, sounding appalled.

"_This_ was my mission? Eliminate this little loser?" The tall kyrii questioned, shaking his head. He looked down at Jeffory with a look of disdain. He reached down, grabbing Jeffory by the throat and raising him up so they were face-to-face. "You're not even worth my time!" he snarled, slamming Jeffory into the wall once again.

Jeffory cried out in pain; This guy was way too powerful! There was no way he could win, not like this! Trident reared back his fist, prepared to slam it into Jeffory's jaw. But, for some reason, he hesitated. He stared at Jeffory with as much malice as he could muster, but he didn't strike.

With a growl, he dropped the smaller Neopian to the ground, stepping back.

"Wha-?" Jeffory gasped, confused beyond words. Trident held up his hand, silencing him. "Next time, give me more of a challenge," he said. To Jeffory's surprise, he vanished; The only trace of him ever being there was the crystallized room.

"Next... time?" Then everything went black.

** (A/N So, I really enjoyed writing that one! Naturally, I hope you enjoyed reading it! Not much to say here, other then please leave a review! I'll see you all next week.)**

**LaDude.**


	11. Chapter 11

**(A/N 'Ello, everybody! Not much to say here, other than the story's going to pick up a lot from here on out, so bear with me, mmmkay? Anyway, hope you enjoy!)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Neopets. I know, I know; hard to believe, ain't it?**

**Defenders of Neopia 2: Brotherhood chapter 11: Reunion.**

Next time.

Why _was_ there a next time?! Trident had had a chance to kill him, right then and there, but he decided not to?

Jeffory lay on his bed in his dorm. It had only been a day since the mysterious kyrii made his presence known by turning almost the entire bottom floor into a giant crystal. Jeffory had woken up in the arena an hour after Trident made his escape, sparing Jeffory's life. Normally, any other person is his position would be relieved. But Jeffory was only disturbed by this. Was something going to happen? Something even worse than being turned into a crystal by a psycopath with cool hair?

Letting his frustration get the better of him, Jeffory let out a loud sigh, throwing his head back and hitting his headstand in the process.

Jeffory yelped, rubbing the lump that was forming. At least he had something to take his mind off of Trident.

Trident's appearence hadn't only shaken Jeffory up. Everybody in the building was on edge. Teachers didn't allow any students to walk the halls by themselves anymore, and even Larx, smug and confident Larx, had locked himself in his office, and nobody had seen his since the invasion.

Jeffory wasn't complaining.

His thoughts were interrupted as two familiar voices sounded from the hallway outside his dorm.

"...ackass, Jack!" That was definitely Hunter. The accused Jack's chuckle reached Jeffory's ears, followed by a knock.

"It's open!" Jeffory called, relieved to have some sort of distraction from his thoughts. The door opened and in came Jack and Hunter. The former looked extremely pleased with himself, while the latter just looked ticked off.

"So, you will _not_ believe what just happened!" Jack greeted, jumping up and down, his tail flailing around wildly. Hunter hissed when it hit him the face. "I would if you'd tell me," Jeffory responded, getting off his bed and walking over to them.

"Well, y'know how you said ol' Larx threw out that tag you brought back from the Silverwing?" he asked, unable to stand still. He didn't wait for an answer. "Well, _this guy,_" he said dramatically pointing his thumbs at himself "managed to get it back for you!" he finished, pulling the tag out of his pocket and tossing it to the stunned kyrii.

"How in the...?" Jeffory mumbled, staring at the tag in his hand. "Larx wasn't supposed to leave for his conference for awhile; how'd you manage to get past him?"

Jack grinned widely. "Well, I'll tell you!" he announced.

...

"Well?" Jeffory asked after several minutes of silence. "Oh, well I wanted to give you guys some suspense, y'know?" Jack responded matter-of-factly. "Anyway, I came into Larx's office and I told him that someone was bad-mouthing him! As soon as I told him who, he bolted out of there, mumbling some weird stuff. With him gone, I was able to dig through his garbage can and get back the tag!" Jack said in one breath, a proud smile on his round face.

"Who did you throw under the bus?" Jeffory asked, not really wanting to know.

"Larry the moehog, of course!" Jack told him, his smile growing even wider. Jeffory just gaped at him, stunned. "What?! Dude, you can't do something like that!" Jeffory scolded. Silence followed his response for a long moment.

"Even if it _is_ Larry!" Jeffory added.

"You done?" Jack asked after a moment, and Jeffory shrugged. "I'm the leader; I think I'm supposed to set a good example, or something," he said in a monotone, and Jack grinned. Hunter smirked but rolled his eyes.

"And I'm supposed to say 'Sorry, Jeffory! It won't happen again'!" he responded, bowing low. Hunter, ever the logical one, shook his head. "Y'know, if Larx finds out you lied, you could get expelled," he warned, giving him "the look". Jack shrugged, although he avoided eye-contact.

"If Kendra were here, she'd say the same thing!" Hunter said, knowing exactly what Jack was thinking. The mycni scoffed. "Oh, _please_!" Was his response. "Like she has time to scold me when she could be with that stupid Tom guy!" Jeffory just stared at him, taken aback. Jeffory wasn't used to Jack acting so jealous.

As if he read Jeffory's mind, Jack snapped: "And I'm NOT jealous!"

They fell into an uncomfortable silence. Hunter looked around with shifty eyes, trying to find some way to escape the thick tension and Jeffory rubbed the back of his neck, and he was pretty sure he heard a pin drop from somewhere in the room.

After several minutes of this, yet another knock on the door posed another well-placed distraction. "Come in!" Jeffory called, sounding much too enthusiastic.

The door opened and in came Rich. He had a couple of scratches on his face, most likely he came a bit too close to the crystal spires in the arena. That aside, he still looked quite healthy, a far-cry from when they first met him.

Jack, pushing aside his macho obligations, tackled the old knight, almost knocking him over. Rich looked quite surprised at the warm welcome, but shook it off. He smiled brightly and returned the hug. When Jack was done, Rich approached Jeffory and extended his hand, but Jeffory ignored it and hugged the draik.

"It's good to see you again, my friends," Rich said after the reunion was over. "Likewise," Hunter said with a smile. "So, not to sound rude... But what are you doing here?" Jack, ever curious, asked. Rich chuckled.

"No, it's not rude." Jack let out a sigh of relief. "See, when the Exam was coming up, Larx called me, requesting my assistance with judging them," he explained, getting several "Ohhs" from his old traveling companions. "That makes sense, you _are_ the chief of the Altador Brigade," Hunter said.

"But is Altador all right?" asked Jeffory, concerned. "I mean, when we were there, the monster activity was intense." Jack and Hunter shuddered at the memory. Those monsters were some of the toughest opponents they had to face up to that point. Even worse than the Moon Folk, in fact.

"It's safe for now" Rich assured them, relaxed as always. "I have my second-in-command taking care of the order around the city; nothing is getting in with him on patrol." The three teens sighed in relief, glad to know the city was in good hands.

"So, how do you know Larx? I mean, he's_ supposed_ to be a good fighter too," _If that's actually true is anyone's guess_ Jeffory thought, amused. "so does that mean it's an obligation to know one another?" the blue-eyed kyrii inquired. Rich nodded. "That's part of it, at least. But you see, there's a lot more to it than that," he told them, waiting for them all to get into comfortable positions for "story time". Once they were comfy, he began explaining.

"When I was about your age, I went to the Academy in Altador. I was always a bit of an outcast," he said with a shake of his head, followed by a somewhat nostalgic chuckle. "I was a significantly good fighter and most of my peers resented me for that. Eventually, I met another outcast: Vincent Larx,"

The jaws hit the floor as soon as those words had left his mouth. Someone as cool as Rich was friend's someone as "Eh" as Larx? Jeffory was ready for Rich to break into a stupid smile and yell "Gotcha!" followed by some stooge with a camera getting in his face.

Rich continued after giving the trio around him time to compose themselves. "We came to know one another and became close friends. See, he was kind of a loner. He could never make any friends, most likely due to his tendency to rant and rave about his troubled home life to anyone with ear range..." At this point, Rich seemed to be off in his own little world, retelling the tale of his youth in such a way that Jeffory dare not interrupt.

"But, unlike the other students, I was glad to listen to his tales of woe; for once someone was speaking to me! I suppose you could say Vincent was my first friend. We told each other everything, we were practically brothers..." he trailed off, the smile that had been on his face being replaced by a frown. "Then... A lot changed. Vincent always had a problem with his self-confidence. At one point, he decided to become a simple bully. He belittled others around him to make himself feel better and I could only watch as the whole school turned against him.

"At the end of our time in the Academy, I had made more friends outside of Vincent, due to my having to clean up his mess. Anyway, I failed the to meet the expectations of my superiors and I wasn't fit to be a Defender. I joined the Knights shortly after. Vincent, ever loyal, joined as well, dropping out of the Academy to be with me, his one and only friend.

"He showed more skill in his fighting than even I, and he was offered a spot in the military to fight in the war. Our then-chief was a retired war veteran and he was impressed by him, so it seemed. Vincent was no older than twenty-two!" Rich's eyes flashed, and he said spoke in a growl, causing Jeffory and his friends to jump at the sudden display of anger. Was Rich jealous of Larx?

After a moment, Rich seemed to notice his lack of composure and took a breath, continuing in a calmer tone.

"Anyway, he accepted and went away for a long time. I eventually became Chief of the Knights, as you know. And Vincent, the man who once hated himself, was now a world-renowned war hero. But it changed him. Made him what he is now." Rich fell silent, hanging his head as if he were ashamed of his old friend.

Jeffory couldn't believe it, but he actually felt a pang of sympathy for Larx. To change so much, to leave your friend, no, your brother, behind... He couldn't fathom how deeply Larx must have been hurting to leave everything behind.

After several moments of silence, Rich spoke up, giving off a long, pained sigh. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to drag you all down memory lane with me," he apologized with a weak chuckle. As he said that, Jeffory felt as if Rich looked much older than he was. It was obvious that this man, who Jeffory had thought of as invincible, had been wounded, had taken on the burden of his old friend's actions. And it was wearing him down.

"I hate to cut our visit short... But I need some time alone," the draik said abruptly. Quickly excusing himself, he got up and left. As he got up, Jeffory could see the pain on his face.

He, Jack and Hunter sat in awkward silence, taking in everything Rich had said. Hearing stories like that really makes you value your friendships, doesn't it? Knowing that something as great as a best friend can be removed from your life in the blink of an eye...

**(A/N Kinda cryptic ending to this chapter, wasn't it? I didn't mean for it to be like that but hey. Anyway, there's Rich's origins along with Larx. Some of you might wanna know more about Rich and (Grey) relationship growing up. Welp, you're gonna have to wait a it longer sadly. Anyway, leave a review and I'll see ya all later!)**

**LaDude out.**


	12. Chapter 12

**(A/N Alright, my apologies for the wait, I was at camp and didn't have my computer with me. With that out of the way, scroll on down and read this belated chapter.)**

**Disclaimer: Blah, blah, Neopets 'tis not mine.**

**Defenders of Neopia 2: Brotherhood chapter 12: Dance of Loneliness **

The next day, Jeffory, Hunter and Jack woke up earlier than usual. It was Friday and they intended to go buy their tuxes for the dance tomorrow night. None of them were really looking forward to this, as they _hated_ dress clothes.

"Jack?" asked Hunter as they exited the elevator on the first floor.

"Hmm?"

"Don't you think we should've asked Kendra to come with us?" he inquired. "I mean, she could help us find something decent to wear _and_ she could get her own dress," Jeffory, who hadn't been paying attention until now, looked over at Jack and nodded his agreement; Hunter had a point.

Jack simply grumbled something under his breath, clearly in a foul mood. He had been like this the night before... and the night before... and (guess what?) the night before. He was clearly very bitter about Kendra's "relationship" with his now-nemesis, Tom.

Hunter and Jeffory shared similar looks of concern; If this kept up, they feared for Kendra and Jack's relationship, not just as possible partners, but as friends. Who knows what would happen to the team in general if Jack continued to distance himself from their Mage? "C'mon, man... You can't blame her. I mean, you haven't exactly told her you like her, or made any move to advance your relationship," Hunter said pointedly.

Jeffory nodded. "Yeah, maybe she thinks you don't like-like her anymore," he offered. To their disappointment, their usually cheerful friend stayed gloomy and quiet. It was obvious that he had thought about all of this before his friends brought it up.

They continued to the lobby in silence. On the way, they passed Jeffory's old nemesis, the receptionist. They gave each other the usual dirty look and returned to their business. Hunter and even Jack grinned at the two's... interesting relationship.

The walk to Brightvale was pretty much uneventful. The trio was attacked by several Snow Snakes, but they posed no threats to the seasoned fighters. In fact, they were basically target practice for Jack's dear friend, the pistol.

When they entered the gates of Brightvale, they took a moment to admire the holiday atmosphere. There were snowmen on every lawn, the houses were decked out with lights of many colors and the trees along the sidewalks dressed in similar colors. Snow covered the transparent walkways, giving off the illusion that they were walking on big, fluffy clouds and children scrambled to and fro, hurling snowballs at each other.

The trio slowed down along the way to dump handfuls of snow down the other's backs and toss snowballs at each other. Jeffory and Jack quite enjoyed Hunter's "There's snow down my shirt!" dance.

After awhile, they reached the tailor in the center of the city. Their previous joy wiped off of their faces as they entered the God-forsaken place to begin the arduous task of trying clothes on.

An hour and a half later, Jeffory and Jack had finally found something to their liking: Jeffory chose a simple but strapping black tux while the mycni had gotten a white dress shirt with black slacks. Sadly, Hunter could still not find one that wouldn't make the trio groan in displeasure. The problem was that all the ones that were bearable (and a few that were actually good) weren't made for the kouger's structure. Jeffory sighed. They really should have done this earlier but they _were_ preoccupied with, you know, not dying.

Hunter exited the dressing room, wearing a dark green tux that made Jeffory shudder and Jack actually say "Gah!". The Kouger hung his head, disheartened. "Oh, c'mon! Can we just leave?!" he whined. "Just get dress clothes!" Jeffory offered, tired and irritated. "You don't need a tux," Jeffory said. "you couldn't possibly look as good as I do in one!" he joked, with a wry grin. Jack fist-bumped him, and even Hunter chuckled. "Alright, show me where you got the dress shirt and such..." Hunter muttered, following the mycni off to the back of the store.

Jeffory sighed in exasperation; He didn't even have a date! Why was he going in the first place? Maybe he hoped some girl would ask him at the last minute. _Hah, good one, Jeff! _He thought to himself bitterly. He absently wondered if Jack would pluck up the courage to ask Kendra to go with him. Honestly, he might already be too late. Tom had most likley asked her, and Kendra would've said "yes" in a heartbeat.

He never would've thought Kendra would be dating. It's not like she wasn't attractive or "girlfriend material", it was just that she didn't seem interested in a relationship. Well, minus her attraction to Jack. Too bad they weren't together now, even if it would be a bit weird.

But hey, weirder things had happened.

Jeffory was briefly reminded of the Moon Folk, and more importantly, Arnold P. Leslie, their old friend from the Lunar Ruins. Jeffory still had not gotten a chance to show Kendra that tape they had brought with them from the journey. Somehow, the tiny camera had survived everything they went through from that point on. Leslie went on his expedition prepared.

_Mostly_ prepared.

Jeffory had never even heard of Kaiser island before, come to think of it.

His thoughts were interrupted as Hunter returned with Jack in tow. The kougra now had an outfit that was similar to Jack's. Jeffory grinned down at his friend and gave him a thumbs-up, silently voicing his approval. To Hunter's left, Jack placed his hands on hips, looking quite proud of himself. "Jeff, can you hold this for me while I change back?" he asked. Jeffory nodded, taking the clothes from him and slinging them over his shoulder as he stood, stretching his tired body.

Hunter came out of the dressing room a few minutes later and they went to the cash register, paid for their clothes and began the walk back to the Academy.

Just like the walk over, the walk back was uneventful as well. The trio made their way through ankle-deep snow, making idle conversation and laughing at all of Jack's stupid jokes. As much as Jeffory enjoyed the time with his friends, he couldn't help but feel as if the group didn't feel complete without Kendra.

When they entered the door of the Academy, they saw Kendra and Tom talking. Jack, being who he was, immediately started walking over, probably hoping to break them up. Jeffory and Hunter sighed, before following him, helpless.

Tom looked up, saw Jack coming (with Jeffory and Hunter at his heels) and gave his rival a smug grin. Jeffory didn't quite like that look, and feared he knew exactly what he was smiling like that for. Without a word, the shadow techo turned and left, making his way to the cafeteria.

Jack watched him leave with a dark look on his face. Hunter cleared his throat, causing Jeffory to jump. "So... What was that about?" asked Hunter, curious. "Oh, um... Nothing... important..." Kendra mumbled, refusing to make eye-contact with Jack who was staring at her, waiting for a real answer.

This didn't go as well as he would've hoped.

The group stood in an awkward silence, most of them refusing to make eye-contact with one another. After several more minutes of silence, Jack spoke up. "Ah, well, I guess it really wasn't important," the mynci shrugged. Jeffory tensed. Jack seemed to open his mouth in slow motion, and Jeffory almost wanted to clamp his hand over the Jack's mouth. "I mean, Tom said it, right?" he jostled.

Jeffory almost shuddered. He _really_ shouldn't have said that... Kendra sent him a cold glare, which made Jack's chuckling cease immediately. "Anyway..." Jack mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck.

"I have to go," Kendra said abruptly, cutting Jack off mid-sentence. Without so much as a goodbye, she turned and floated off, heading in the direction of the elevator. Jack sighed sadly, hanging his head. "Stupid..." he muttered to himself, over and over.

Jeffory, unsure of what to say, patted his friend on the back. Jack responded to his gesture with an even more depressed sigh. Hunter sighed as well. After a moment of these two doing this, Jeffory decided to jump on the bandwagon of depression and let out a sigh.

Seeing the look on Tom's face when he left only meant one thing; and it was one thing that would destroy Jack: Tom had asked Kendra to the dance. And she accepted.

**(A/N Not much to say here, other than that next chapter will be about said dance! Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and please leave a review! I'll see you all next week!)**

**LaDude out.**


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